Lervin Flores puts on a show to bring home Slam Dunk crown

Lervin Flores made sure to make up for the botches and blunders committed by the rest of the field in the NCAA Season 93 All-Star Slam Dunk competition by putting on a scintillating performance, Friday afternoon at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.

“Pinaghandaan ko talaga ito eh,” said Flores, who was also part of the tournament last year. Moreover, his confidence was at a high entering the event, knowing that defending champion Yankie Haruna would not be able to defend his crown.

After scoring a 45 with an off-the-backboard, reverse dunk in the preliminary, Flores of the Arellano Chiefs wowed the crowd by jumping over sportscaster Andrei Felix, actor Empoy Marquez, and Letran’s Renato Ular for a one-handed jam that scored 10s across the board.

“Yun nga, pinpractice ko talaga. Ginagawa ko, tatlong tao pa minsan. Si [Eli] Ongolo-ongolo pa nga dapat eh,” shared Flores.

Only three student-athletes, Flores, Ular, and Saint Benilde’s Justin Gulang, managed to convert on their dunks in the first round.

Ular missed on his off-the-glass dunk attempt in the finale, while Gulang’s slow 360-degree dunk scored a 45.

JRU’s Jed Sarmento, San Beda’s Eugene Toba, Lyceum’s Yancy Remulla, EAC’s Christian Bugarin, San Sebastian’s Allyn Bulanadi, and Perpetual’s Lervin Lucente completed the field but all missed their attempts.

Judges for the event were NCAA Press Corps president Cedelf Tupas, Alab Pilipinas head coach Jimmy Alapag, ABL Local MVP Bobby Ray Parks Jr., actor Empoy, and actress Ria Atayde.