Reyes, Cone to handle North and South squads, respectively

THREE San Miguel Beer stalwarts and one of the top contenders for the season’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award lead the fans’ choices as possible starters for the North and South teams seeing action in the PBA All-Star weekend later this month.

Jay Washington and Dondon Hontiveros got the most number of votes from PBA fans to start for the South squad of coach Tim Cone during the initial counting of ballots, while Beermen teammate Marc Pingris and Talk `N Text star guard MacMac Cardona showed the way for the North team of coach Chot Reyes.

Washington tallied 20,800 to top the center/forward spots while Hontiveros had 25,070 in the guard position.

Pingris received 18,040 votes as the top preferred player for the Nos. 4 and 5 positions while at the wing, it’s Cardona who paces the pack with 10,598.

The top five picks voted by fans will comprise the starting units of both the South and North teams that will play the Powerade-Team Pilipinas of coach Yeng Guiao.

The figures so far counted are just half of the total voting game days and does not include yet the provincial votes conducted by the league during its out-of-town games in the Motolite-PBA Fiesta Conference.

Fans still have one more week to vote their preferred choices as starting five for this year’s All-Star spectacle.

Other players who gained the fans’ nod included San Miguel Beer’s Danny Seigle (20,430), Eric Menk of Barangay Ginebra (18,944), Alaska’s Joe DeVance (12,458), Beerman Dorian Pena (11,800) and the Kings’ Sunday Salvacion (11,512) for the South frontcourt, while at the backcourt, it’s Talk N Text’s Jimmy Alapag (20,560), Barangay Ginebra’s Ronald Tubid (12,608) and the Purefoods duo of Peter June Simon (9,400) and Roger Yap (6,158).

For the North, trailing Pingris are Lordy Tugade of San Miguel (11,976), Purefoods’ Rico Villanueva (9,998), Beerman Danny Ildefonso (8652) and the Giants’ Romel Adducul (7,212) and KG Canaleta (6,866).

After Cardona in the guard spot are Barangay Ginebra’s Paul Artadi (8,960), Bonbon Custodio of San Miguel Beer (8,256), Sta. Lucia’s Joseph Yeo (7,466) and Alaska’s L.A Tenorio (7,264).

The reserves of both the North and South teams will be selected by the rest of the PBA coaches. The two squads are also going to be reinforced by three imports handpicked by Commissioner Sonny Barrios.

Reyes and his North squad get the first crack against the Nationals on April 22 in Victorias City, Negros Occidental, before Cone and the South selection take their turn on the 24th in Panabo City, Davao.

The South and North starters then play together as one under Reyes and clash with the RP quintet on the 26th at the Araneta Coliseum. The four remaining imports not selected by Commissioner Barrios in the first two games will reinforce the All-Star team on the third and last day. (DBC)


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