Mbala banners UAAP Season 79 top performers

UAAP Season 79 Mythical Five. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Ben Mbala towered over the competition, literally and figuratively.

The Cameroonian big man bagged the bulk of prizes on Wednesday when the top performers of UAAP Season 79 were honored at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Mbala was named as the season’s Most Valuable Player, and was also cited as the PSBankable Player of the Season and the Kopiko Recharged Player of the Team for La Salle.

All in all, he took home P125,000 in cash prizes and a new Huawei P9 Plus cellphone.

Not far behind was teammate Aljun Melecio, who was named as the Rookie of the Year and the Manulife Up and Coming Player of the Season, as he came away with P20,000 and a new Huawei P9 Plus cellphone.

Mbala, teammate Jeron Teng, Far Eastern U’s Raymar Jose, University of the Philippine’s Paul Desiderio and Ateneo’s Thirdy Ravena completed the Mythical Five team.

Ateneo center Isaac Go also had his share of awards, as he was recognized as the Appeton Most Improved Player of the Season and was given the Chooks-To-Go Sportsmanship Award, taking home P150,000 in total cash prizes.

Other Kopiko Recharged Player of the Team awardees, who were all given P25,000 cash prize include Adamson rookie Jerrick Ahanmisi, Ateneo sniper Anton Asistio, FEU center Prince Orizu, National University slasher J-Jay Alejandro, University of the East guard Bonbon Batiller, UP senior Dave Moralde, and University of Santo Tomas winger Louie Vigil.