La Salle-Zobel's Kieffer Alas cops UAAP MVP award

MANILA, Philippines -- Kieffer Alas bagged the Most Valuable Player (MVP) plum, becoming only the second La Salle-Zobel cager to do so in the UAAP boys’ basketball tournament.

The second-generation player topped the race among all local players with 91.429 statistical points (SPs) to follow the path of Aljun Melecio in Season 78 (2016).

Son of seasoned coach Louie and the younger brother of PBA veteran Kevin from NLEX, Alas averaged 20.07 points, 11.14 rebounds, 4.93 assists and 1.07 steals in 14 games albeit La Salle-Zobel (6-8) got an early booth at sixth place.

“Masakit to not make it to the Final Four pero at least may positives to this season. I'll just use this as fuel for my future,” said the Gilas Pilipinas Youth standout.

Last season’s MVP Collins Akowe of National University-Nazareth School, which is in a tight 1-1 series duel with University Santo Tomas in the boys’ finals, was named the first-ever Best Foreign-Student Athlete despite topping the overall race with 105.786 SPs.

Akowe was unstoppable with norms of 20.79 points, 19.21 rebounds, 2.71 assists and 1.79 blocks but the UAAP implemented a new rule this season with separate awards for MVP that’s only eligible for locals and the Best Foreign Student-Athlete.

Joining Alas and Akowe in the Mythical Team are FEU-Diliman’s Cabs Cabonilas (90.071 SPs), Adamson’s Mark Esperanza (76.385 SPs) and UP Integrated School’s Ethan Egea (66.643 SPs).

In the girls’ division, UST’s Barby Dajao collected 105.5 SPs to become only the second-ever MVP of the newly-minted tournament after Adamson’s Cris Padilla in UAAP Season 82 (2020).

Dajao averaged 15.17 points, 10.17 rebounds, 6.17 assists, and 4.33 steals per game as she also claimed the Finals MVP after the Junior Growling Tigresses’ 8-0 season sweep of the tourney that only came back this season since its debut five years ago.

"Thankful ako sa mga awards na ito. Thankful din ako sa family ko at sa teammates ko at coaches ko. Wala ako dito kung wala ang guidance nila. Itutuloy ko lang ito hanggang sa maabot ko pangarap ko," said Dajao.

Also in the girls’ Mythical Five are DLSZ’s Erica De Luna (102.167 SPs), UST’s Rhiane Perez (98.25 SPs), NUNS’s Aubrey Lapasaran (91.167 SPs) and UST’s Katrina Insoy (68.667 SPs).

UPIS’ Jhustin Hallare and UST’s Perez were named UAAP Rookie of the Year in the men’s and women’s division, respectively.

Hallare, also part of the Junior High School Mythical Five last season, fired 11.57 points, 3.71 rebounds, 1.86 assists and 1.0 steals while Perez registered 18.5 points, 5.25 rebounds, 4.25 assists and 4.5 steals per game.