Japeth Aguilar ecstatic with new role as import stopper

Japeth Aguilar brought the house down with a chase down block on Denzel Bowles' fastbreak layup midway in the fourth quarter of the highly-anticipated match up between Barangay Ginebra and Star Hotshots on Sunday night.

The Gin Kings forward let out a howl of celebration after the play, which prevented their arch-rivals from taking a two-possession lead.

In front of the bench, coach Tim Cone clapped his hands and visibly swelled with pride for his big man.

Aguilar would repeat the feat with 46 seconds remaining in the game, shutting the door on Bowles anew with a clutch swat to deny the Hotshots a chance to break the 87-all deadlock.

Ginebra would come out with a 92-87 victory thanks to his huge defensive plays, but the soft-spoken 6-foot-9 tower deflected the credit to his teammates.

"My teammates talaga, nag-step up ngayon. Lagi silang nandun sa help side every time maka-penetrate si Denzel, nandun sila," he said.

Aguilar would not score a single point in the second half after collecting 15 in the first, but he limited the usually dominant Bowles to a 6-of-18 clip to also finish with 15 markers.

Asked what he thought of pulling off the huge plays, which brought the full house SMART-Araneta Coliseum crowd to their feet, the former Gilas Pilipinas big said he owed it to his familiarity with the four-time import.

"Isa ring factor kasi alam ko (Bowles) would take the shot e, he would be aggressive. So ina-anticipate ko na 'yun," he said.

Aguilar said he is still in the "learning process" and adjusting to his role of guarding imports, but he said he felt honored with the trust Cone placed upon him.

"Masyadong mabigat 'yung import stopper. Pero committed naman ako na matuto sa ganun," he said. — APG, GMA News