FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Arnaud Noah and Travis Jonson, relative unknowns, made a name for themselves in the side events in the NCAA’s first-ever All-Star festivities in its 90th Season Saturday at the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan.
Noah, a 6-foot-3 Cameroonian playing for San Beda’s Team B, was a late replacement for the Red Lions’ Nigerian import Ola Adeogun in the Slam Dunk competition and he came out of nowhere to steal the spotlight with his breathtaking slams.
Jonson, a third stringer at the guard spot for College of St. Benilde, upset fan favorite Philip Paniamogan of host Jose Rizal University in the finals of the Three-point Shootout.
The Fil-American Jonson topped the first round with 21 points before following it up with 20 points in the final round. Paniamogan shot 19 points to tie Mapua’s Exi Biteng at the first round before the JRU guard broke the tie with in a 30-second shootout to advance into the finals.
Noah played it safe in his first attempt with an emphatic one-handed tomahawk dunk that garnered a total score of from the three judges namely ex-league board member of Mapua Ding Lozano, former Letran star and slam dunk artist himself Rey Guevarra and NCAA Press Corps’ Joey Villar.
“I just did my best. I’m proud of what I did because I was able to do the dunks I practiced,” said Noah.
“They’re really good,” Noah said of his competitors. “In contests like this, you just have to make your first dunk and maybe they just got tired in the end.”
The 20-year-old Noah saved his best dunks in the later rounds which included a one-hander while jumping over his taller teammate that earned a near-perfect score of 29 in the second round.
The chiseled Noah then sealed the Slam Dunk plum with another one-hander. But this time off a bounce pass that got him a 28 in his first attempt in the final round after San Sebastian sophomore CJ Perez failed to convert a dunk, inside the given time of 45 seconds, in the final round.
Noah also beat Lyceum’s Jebb Bulawan, Arellano’s Zach Nicholls, CSB’s Jonathan Grey, Perpetual Help”s Kervin Lucente, Emilio Aguinaldo College’s Sydney Onwubere, JRU’s Abdul Wahab, Mapua’s Jeson Cantos and Letran’s Rey Publico.
Stags’ Jamil Ortuoste, Red Lions’ Anthony Semerad, Generals’ Jan Jamon, Pirates’ Wilson Baltazar, Altas’ Harold Arboleda, Knights’ Kevin Racal and Chiefs’ Levi Hernandez also competed in the Three-point Shootout.