Happy Birthday, Alejo “Ponky” Alolor ( Mar 28 )

Happy Birthday, Alejo “Ponky” Alolor

Source : Assorted Magazines (PBA Archives Collections)

Alejo “Ponky” Alolor
University of Visayas Green Lancer
1981 Rookie of the Year runner-up
14-season PBA veteran
4x PBA champion

Standing only 5-foot-11,
Alolor is an all-around dribbler. With the UV Green Lancers he played forward, guard and center and excelled in all. Despite his heightshort for present-day RP cage standards Alolor can dunk and dunk he did a lot of times during his stint with the Green Lancers. Pongkie started playing in the high school team of the Cebu Central Colleges under coach Mariano Agas back in 1977. After a year's term with CCC, he went to UV as a member of the Green Lancers' basketball farm for more intensive training. In 1979, he was drafted into the UV varsity squad which he helped win that year's Cebu Amateur Athletic Association (CAAA) championship. He again did his bit For the Lancers in 1980 when they retained the CAAA Crown. Alolor had also sten action in the 1979 and 1980 National Intercollegiate cagefest in Laoag City and Manila, where the Lancers finished third and second, respectively. When not donning the Green Lancers jersey, Alolor played for the Selko Quarts, one of Cebu's outstanding commercial fives, and helped this team win the Mayor's Cup championship last year by beating then-national Inter club champions Fair Price Supermarketeers. Alolor played so well in the Mayor's Cup series that he up the Most wrapped Valuable Player award hands down. Pongkie is known among discerning Cebuano cage fans as a player who works like a borse. He plays like Manny Paner, who also comes from UV, but is deadlier than Paner in outside shooting. He always finishes a game with double figures. He's a heady player, too. Very intelligent. "One thing I like about Alolor is his head. He's got brains. And he makes use of his brains on the hardcourt," Justiniano "Ening" Completo, UV and Seiko coach, told Sports World. Pongkie is a good team man. He doesn't only produce points, he also helps his teammates score through effective assists and legit screenings. "If Alolor plays the kind of ballgame he played in Cebu's collegiate and commercial leagues, he'll be another PBA sensation like his UV-mate Willie Generalao (of Gilbey's Gins)," coach Completo. said On the basis of his performance on his debut a few weeks ago, it seems Pongkie Alolor will be playing that kind of ballgame in the PBA.