MICHAEL Mabulac was named the MVP in the MPBL Invitational on Wednesday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The former Jose Rizal University bruiser was the anchor in the Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards' unbeaten run in Group C as well as in an 84-67 win over the Iloilo United Royals in the quarterfinals.
Former Beerman
Mabulac, who previously played for San Miguel in the PBA, averaged 13.0 points on 54-percent shooting from the field, to go with 10.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 25.6 minutes for Nueva Ecija.
The journey, however, isn't done for the Rice Vanguards, who were playing Imus Bandera-Buracai de Laiya in the other semifinal matchup at posting time.
Mythical Team
Joining Mabulac in the Mythical Five were Adi Santos of Imus, Michael Juico of Basilan Jumbo Plastic Medical Depot, Fran Yu of Pasig-Sta. Lucia Realtors, and Mac Tallo of Bicol-LCC Malls Volcanoes.
This wasn't the first hardware for Mabulac this year. He was also named as the co-Finals MVP with Juico in the Southern Finals of the Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup last August.
Meanwhile, Yu wasn't the only amateur to get a citation in the tourney with his fellow Letran Knight Ato Ular of Marikina Shoe City being recognized as the Defensive Player of the Year after leading the league in rebounds at 16.0 boards.
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