Jebb Bulawan has been waiting for this moment ever since last season’s All Star festivities. Not even a thigh surgery would hamper Bulawan’s dreams of winning this year’s crown.
Even in the earlier part of the competition, Jebb Bulawan of Lyceum and Yankie Haruna of Saint Benilde stood out from the competition. Both Haruna and Bulawan scored a round-high 26 points in the opening round. Haruna performed an off-the-bounce reverse dunk while Bulawan performed a strong double clutch dunk.
Yankie Haruna followed his dunk up with a windmill dunk coming off a hand-off by teammate Travis Jonson. The dunk scintillated both the crowd and the judges as it drew 29 points. Bulawan then went off from far away for a strong two-handed slam that scored 25 points. The second round was also highlighted by a huge two-handed sledge hammer by Arellano’s Ele Ongolo-ongolo, that judge ‘Bai’ Cristobal only gave a six, and a Statue of Liberty dunk by Allen Bulanadi. Both dunks compiled scores of 23 points.
The Filipino-American wasn’t done in the third round as he threw down a huge two-handed jam coming from a lob by Jonson that scored 24 points. Bulawan played it safe in the third round in throwing down a strong two-handed jam for 20. Ongolo-ongolo who threw down a one-handed smash (for 21 points), Bulanadi, with a Karl Malone-tribute dunk (20 points), and Perpetual’s Prince Eze’s tomahawk jam (23 points) highlighted the round.
With 79 combined points for Haruna and 71 combined points for Bulawan, the two advanced in the dunk-off to crown this year’s slam dunk king.
After a coin-toss, Jebb Bulawan was the first one up on the court. Bulawan called his teammate Joseph Gabayni and told him to sit on a chair while taking a selfie. Bulawan went full speed on throwing down a death-defying two handed jam for a score of 29. On the other hand, Haruna used CSB big man JR Ongteco as a prop. Haruna dunked over his teammate to the roar of the crowd and tie things up.
Knowing he needed this dunk, Bulawan jumped over fellow Pirates Joseph Gabayni and Shaq Alanes and completed it with a two-handed jam, eliciting three perfect 10s from the judges. Haruna failed to convert on a hand-off between the legs dunk to give-up the crown.
“I did this for the school, for my team so that we’ll get more attention,” said Bulawan, who vowed to join next year to defend his title.
In the end, Bulawan’s perfect execution sealed it. “I knew I would need to have a more difficult dunk beat him [Haruna]. I’m glad I did,” he added.
