Parks, Pogoy match a feat last accomplished three decades ago

Ray Parks Jr. pops a jumper in front of Terrafirma rookie Roosevelt Adams. —PHOTO FROMPBA IMAGES

Considering that a lot of these players are still far from being in 100-percent shape because of the lack of preparation time caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the PBA’s 45th Season restart inside the bubble in Clark has produced some eye-popping scoring performances.

TNT teammates RR Pogoy and Ray Parks Jr. actually did something the PBA hasn’t seen in three decades, when they powered the Tropang Giga to victories in their first two Philippine Cup outings and becoming the first teammates since the most famous Mutt and Jeff tandem in the 1990s to turn in 40-point efforts.

Pogoy scored a career-high 45 points built around 10 triples in a 100-95 win over Alaska on Sunday, before Parks, saying that he is “tired of being forgotten,” tossed in 40 in a 112-101 rout of Terrafirma on Tuesday night at Angeles University Foundation.

“I just want to show the hard work that I put in and the team has put in,” Parks said. “To be honest, I’m tired of being forgotten. I just feel like I’ve been slept on.

“I just want to use this time to really just showcase my game and all the hard work I’ve been putting in,” added Parks, who spent most of the lockdown in the United States where he was able to whip himself into shape.

Matthew Wright also had a 36-point game for Phoenix and CJ Perez a 30-point effort for the Dyip against the Tropang Giga as several players are playing at a pretty high level even with just over two weeks of full scrimmages heading into opening night.

The 5-foot-9 Ronnie Magsanoc and the 6-foot-5 Benjie Paras, who were defunct Shell’s 1-2 punch for so many years, last turned in that trick in the All-Filipino Cup in 1990, when Magsanoc hit for what stands as his career-high 40 points in a 138-134 loss to Allan Caidic and Presto on July 1.

Four nights later, Paras, the only player to win Rookie-MVP the year before, scattered 45 in a 155-108 demolition job of a then-young Pepsi squad. Paras’ career-high was chalked up during his rookie year in 1989, when he beat Ramon Fernandez for the MVP despite San Miguel Beer completing a Grand Slam that year.

According to chief statistician Fidel Mangonon III, there was also one scoring sequence like that between teammates in 1999 when Eric Menk tossed in 41 and Sonny Alvarado accounted for 46 on the same month for Tanduay in the AFC. INQ