Winners are Saints

Bolick, Eze key win vs Heroes

Robert Bolick and Prince Eze delivered down the stretch as the Saints prevailed in a back-andforth endgame to hack out an 84-80 victory over the Heroes in the NCAA All-Star Game at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan yesterday.

San Beda’s Bolick drained a triple while Eze from Perpetual Help canned in two charities in the final two minutes as the Boyet Fernandez-mentored squad survived a scare from the Heroes in the fourth quarter, which they dominated.

Arellano U’s Kent Salado and CJ Perez of Lyceum rallied the Heroes from 12 points down to force a 69-all count early in the fourth and set up a thrilling finish to a match which featured the league’s leading players and upcoming stars.

“We did try to balance the playing time for everyone since it’s an all-star match but at least in the end when it became a close contest, we made some stops. Eze played really well,” said Fernandez.

Eze later took the All-Star MVP crown after leading the Saints with a double-double output of 17 points on a 7-for-13 clip and 14 rebounds he spiked with three blocks, an assist and a steal against two turnovers.

Gab Dagangon of the Altas shot 14 points while the Knights’ Rey Nambatac added 12 for the Saints.

Perez led the Heroes with 15 points, four rebounds, four steals, three assists and a block against two turnovers.

Earlier, Lervin Flores of Arellano U soared over three people, including Letran opponent Renato Ular, and slammed in a one-handed jam to earn a perfect mark from the judges and wrest the slam dunk title.

Flores jumped over Ular, host Andrei Felix and celebrity judge Empoy Marquez and completed the dunk on his first try worth 50 points as he edged Justin Gutang of Saint Benilde and Ular.

Gutang collected 45 points on a 360 jam while Ular bungled all his three attempts after topping the elims together with Flores.

Meanwhile, Almel Orquina of Mapua outgunned Perpetual’s Jack Hao, 15-10, in the finals of the threepoint shootout to claim the crown.

Orquina and Hao tallied 18 points apiece in the elims leading to a highly anticipated final faceoff.