La Salle aces Perkins, Sargent 1-2 in Draft

La Salle’s Jason Perkins. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

COACH Caloy Garcia expects top rookie pick Jason Perkins to make a contender out of the fledgling Racal-KeraMix in the next PBA D-League season.

“The reason why we got Perkins is we know he can shoot from the outside and he can post up,” said Garcia. “He’s a very intelligent player. His strength is what we lacked last year. We had a good run, but we did not have anybody to go to at the post.”

La Salle standouts emerged as the 1-2 picks as AMA Online Education surprisingly selected Perkin’s teammate, Julian Sargent, second overall in the 2015 Rookie Draft yesterday at PBA Cafe in Metrowalk, Pasig.

“We watched his UAAP games and we saw the quality minutes he gave La Salle,” said AMA coach Mark Herrera, who initially had Ateneo big man Alfonso Gotladera in mind.

Perkins, who helped power the Green Archers to the 2013 UAAP crown, joins a promising Racal-Keramix squad bannered by NCAA star Jio Jalalon of Arellano when the developmental league fires off on Jan. 21.

Ateneo shooter Von Pessumal wound up as the third overall pick by Tanduay, which also drafted Gotladera in the second round and Adamson guard Joseph Nalos in the third.

Three foreign players with Filipino roots came next with Taylor Statham going to last conference’s champion Cafe France, Avery Scharer to Wangs Basketball and Mike Williams to Mindanao Aguilas.

Rounding out the first-round picks were Agustini Amar for Jam Liner-University of the Philippines and Richard Escoto for Phoenix-Far Eastern University.

BDO-National University passed up on the selections as the Bulldogs aim to rely solely on their current squad.

Jordan Rios (Racal-KeraMix), Ryan Pascual (AMA), Gotladera (Tanduay), JK Casino (Cafe France), Anton Castro (Wangs), Taylor Wetherell (Mindanao) and Francis Tamsi (Phoenix-FEU) emerged as second-round picks in the Draft that reached 12 rounds.