Fernandez 3-point king anew

The San Miguel Corp. clan made the 2001 PBA All-Star side-events a family affair.

A Purefoods Hotdog stretched his reign as Three-Point King, a high-flying San Miguel Beer reserve pointguard wowed the Araneta Coliseum crowd in winning the Slam Dunk competition while Barangay Ginebra entries ruled the Buzzer Beater and 2Ball contests.

Boyet Fernandez became the third player to win back-to-back Three-Point crowns as he topped the field that also featured eventual runner-up William Antonio, Francis Adriano, Rob Wainwright, Dondon Hontiveros, Jherom Ejercito, Mick Pennisi, Richie Ticzon, Dwight Lago and Mark Caguioa.

Fernandez scored a contest-high 20 points in the eliminations then beat Antonio, 13-5, in the finals in a successful defense of the title he won last year in the competition that served as one of the appetizers in the ABC All-Star Game. He dethroned Rhoel Gomez then.

The Purefoods deadshot became the third player to win two successive three-point titles after Allan Caidic and Jasper Ocampo.

However, Joey Mente, barely 5-10, stole the thunder from everybody as he sent the crowd and even the All-Star Gamers up on their feet with electrifying dunks that made him the surprise winner of the Slam Dunk contest.

The Bal David-Jun Limpot tandem and Jayjay Helterbrand seized a piece of the spotlight in winning the 2Ball contest and the Buzzer-Beater event, respectively.

But even the crowd-favorite Ginebra Kings were relegated to the background as soon as Mente started to show his superb dunking prowess.

John Arigo actually gave Mente a tough competition but went on to yield the crown in the end as he couldn’t match the intensity of the final dunk the San Miguel guard did which drew a perfect score of 30 points from the panel of judges made up of PBA greats Ramon Fernandez and Abet Guidaben, PBL commissioner Chino Trinidad, former world boxing champion Gerry Peñalosa and TV personality Jeffrey Quizon.

Mente drew collective aaahs and ooohs from the crowd as he did a Tomahawk and 360-degree slams in the eliminations to net 56 points. Arigo also got 56 points as he did a windmill then made a thunderous slam with teammate Kenny Evans as a hurdle.

Alex Crisano made a show of his own and could have easily made it to the finals if not twice missing a trick he did with Caguioa. Davonn Harp, with 26 points, grabbed the third and last slot in the finals.

Out after the eliminations were Oliver Agapito with 38 points, Jercules Tangkay also with 38, Mark Victorio with 45 and Mark Telan with 44.