Ellis, Tiu, Villanueva shine in All-Star side events

DIGOS CITY, Davao del Sur – Rookies Chris Ellis and Chris Tiu put on a show even as Jonas Villanueva shone for the fourth straight year in the Skills Challenge of the PBA All Star Week here.

Title and crowd favorite Chris Ellis of Brgy. Ginebra San Miguel played true to hype as he elbowed his way to the Slam Dunk title vacated by five-time champion Nino Canaleta.

Ellis failed to come up with a perfect dunk in the final round but nonetheless won the event when his teammate Elmer Espiritu flubbed his last try.

Ellis started the show with a rock-a-bye baby slam in tribute to the Skywalker Samboy Lim, who is now the Kings' team manager. He capped off the elims with another perfect score on a difficult slam, bouncing the ball to himself off the backboard.

"I'm a little bit disappointed with myself with the execution of my final dunks but I'm happy I've won. My inspiration is to give the fans a good show," Ellis told Philstar.com after the competition.

Ellis, who capped off his high-wire act with a Vince Carter-inspired elbow dunk, said he will be back next year to defend the crown.

"I'm hoping these guys will be back. It would be nice to play against the legend (Canaleta) but I think he already moved up to the three-point competition," Ellis added.

In the Master Game Face Challenge 3-Pt Shootout, the sweet-shooting Tiu topscored the elims with 17 then outshot Canaleta in the finals 21-18 to win the crown.

"Hindi ko inisip yung score. I was just focused on shooting the ball. I think nakatulong yung warm-up ko sa Tiu-torials shoot namin sa Davao City kaninang umaga," said the newly-crowned champion.

Former three-time champion Mark Macapagal bombed out of the competition in the elims with only 11 points while James Yap struggled with the worst output in the field finishing with only eight.

In the first event of the day, Villanueva clocked in 26.3 seconds to annex the Obstacle Challenge title for the fourth straight year. The Barako Bull playmaker, in fact, outdid himself in this competition compared to his best time record of 29.7 seconds in the elims last year.