NorthPort forward JM Calma went through the final run flawlessly to lay claim to the Obstacle Course crown in the Philippine Basketball Association All-Stars Skills Challenge Saturday at the University of Saint La Salle gym in Bacolod City.
The Batang Pier bet completed the championship course which features left and right-handed layups, dribbling up and down the opposite side of the court and two outlet passing challenges in just 26 seconds.
Calma finished each station in just his first attempt including the closing jump shot inside the freethrow line to lift the trophy and pocket the P30,000 champion purse.
He bested James Laput of Magnolia and Santi Santillan of Rain or Shine for the title after they clocked in with 30 and 29 seconds, respectively.
Calma eliminated Mo Tautuaa of San Miguel Beer in the elimination round before taking down Ralph Cu of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel in the second round.
Cu, who was a replacement for an ill Christian Standhardinger, dethroned last year’s winner Dave Marcelo of NLEX in the elimination round.
Also seeing early exits were Jason Perkins of Phoenix, Cliff Jopia of Blackwater, Raymond Almazan of Meralco and Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser of TNT.
Perkins was eliminated by Isaac Go of Terrafirma, Jopia got the boot from Laput, Almazan lost to Santillan while Justin Arana of Converge beat Ganuelas-Rosser.
Laput outsmarted Go in the second round, blocking his opponent’s way in the first layup to create significant separation.
Santillan, on the other hand, pulled off a come-from-behind win over Arana as he drilled the one-handed jumper for the upset.
Laput had a hard time in the final run as he needed four attempts to drain the last jumper.
Santillan had it worse.
The Elasto Painter missed his first couple of attempts in the two passing stations and also needed multiple tries in the jumper.
