MANILA – Rhenz Abando of Anyang KGC Ginseng Corporation carried the Philippine colors in the Korean Basketball League as he ruled the league’s All-Star slam dunk competition on Sunday night at the Suwon KT Sonicboom Arena.
The former University of Santo Tomas and Colegio de San Juan de Letran Knights star unloaded an array of gravity-defying dunks en route to a perfect 100 score in the slam dunk competition.
During the first round, the 6-foot-2 winger from Pangasinan first attempted a 360-degrees jam before signaling that the competition was over to the delight of the KBL fans in the arena.
Abando followed this up with an off-an-alley-oop dunk from a pass by fellow Filipino player Rhon Jay Abarrientos of Ulsan Hyundai Mobis Phoebus and a backboard tap jam to reach the final round.
In the final round, which took place during the halftime break of the KBL all-star game, Abando made sure to take home the slam dunk crown when he converted a tough windmill jam followed by a double clutch jam.
Abando finished with a perfect 100 points to defeat Ha Yungi of Suwon KT Sonic Boom (90), Park Jincheol of Goyang Carrots (87), and Choi Jin Soo of Ulsan Hyundai Mobis (89) in the final round.
“I’ve never been successful with a windmill, but I had to do it to win this contest,” said Abando, who was a former call up of the Gilas Pilipinas national men’s basketball team of head coach Vincent “Chot” Reyes.
Later in the day, Abando along with Abarrientos and Negrense Samjosef Belangel lorded over the All-Star 3×3 basketball event by beating Team Korea’s KGC’s Byeon Junhyeong, Seoul Samsung’s Lee Junghyun, and Seoul SK’s Kim Sunhyung, 13-7.
Abando and Abarrientos heated up early, giving the Filipino troika a 7-4 advantage. Belangel and Abarrientos then made it rain from outside before Abando capped things off with a jam.
Abarrientos, meanwhile, was not able to notch his second All-Star gold as he failed to reach the finals of the three-point shootout final after scoring just 13 points in the prelims./PN
