Orquina shakes off flu, sizzles en route to Three-Point crown

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Almel Orquina shrugged off flu and came out of nowhere to win the Three-Point Shootout Friday in the 2017 NCAA All-Star at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.

The Mapua sophomore shot 15 points in the final round, with the title-clinching basket coming from the moneyball of the fourth rack to fend off Perpetual’s Jack Hao, who had 10 points, in the championship round.

“I didn’t really expect this. I still feel weak, but I was able to recover,” shared Orquina. “In my mind, I just wanted to enjoy this because this is my first time.”

The sniper said that wins like these are big for the cellar-dweling Cardinals as they look for a silver
lining in preparation for the second round.

“For me, this is really important. We’re already playing bad, so at least, awards like these allows us to redeem ourselves a bit,” he said.

Orquina dethroned defending champion AC Soberano of San Beda, who only had 14 in the first round.

Also joining in the contest were San Sebastian’s RK Ilagan, EAC’s Sidney Onwubere, Letran’s Jerrick Balanza, Lyceum’s Spencer Pretta, JRU’s Karl Bordon, Arellano’s Brylle Meca, and St. Benilde’s Matt Johnson.