ALCANTARA — MJAS Zenith-Talisay’s Jaymar Gimpayan was hailed as the Most Valuable Player of the 2021 Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup’s Visayas leg, Friday afternoon.
In a ceremony held at the Civic Centre here in Cebu, the 6-foot-2 small forward, who is a product of Our Lady of Fatima University, was crowned as the league’s top player prior to Game One of the best-of-three Visayas Finals.
“Hindi ko ineexpect ito dahil talagang hard work lang talaga ginawa ko sa bawat laro,” said the native of Oleras, Northern Samar.
“Dine-dedicate ko ito sa kuya ko na talagang nagtulak sa akin na maglaro ng basketball at makipagsapalaran sa Maynila. Nagpapasalamat din ako sa mga teammates ko dahil hindi nila ako iniwan dito sa bubble. Talagang pamilya na turi nila sa akin. Kasama ko sila sa hirap at saya dito.”
Gimpayan, 25, gathered 416 points in the MVP race, built on 333 statistical points (1st), 18 from player votes (2nd), 25 from media votes (1st), and 40 votes (1st) from the VisMin office.
Instrumental was Gimpayan in the Aquastars’ 10-game sweep of the elimination round, averaging 12.5 points (8th) and 8.9 rebounds (3rd) per game, along with 1.1 assists.
Tubigon Bohol’s homegrown guard Joseph Marquez and big man Pari Llagas placed second and third, respectively, in the race with the former tallying 358 points while the latter gathering 301.
Joining Gimpayan in the All-Visayas team are power forward Marquez; MJAS-Talisay point guard Paulo Hubalde and center Jhaymo Eguilos; and KCS-Mandaue’s Gryann Mendoza.
Marquez was the league’s leading scorer at 16.9 points per game. He is also the league’s sixth-best rebounder at 8.0 boards per contest while also tallying 3.5 assists (7th).
Hubalde was the league’s top assist man at 7.2 assists while also norming 6.1 points and 5.1 rebounds while Eguilos averaged 8.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, and 1.5 assists.
Mendoza, Mandaue’s lead man, scattered all-around numbers of 11.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.1 blocks per game.
Also awarded was ARQ Builders Lapu-Lapu who finished third in the competition. Lapu-Lapu brought Mandaue to the limit during the semifinals, eventually bowing in the win-or-go-home last Wednesday, 64-74.
