Aces subdue Tigers, keep semifinal hopes burning
By Musong R. Castillo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:02:00 06/27/2008
Filed Under: Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), Basketball
GAMES SUNDAY (Araneta Coliseum)
4:20 p.m.--Magnolia vs Alaska
6:50 p.m.--Talk 'N Text vs Barangay Ginebra
MANILA, Philippines--Terribly undersized and a Most Valuable Player short, Alaska leaned hard on a tough defense to post a 77-73 victory over Coca-Cola and remain alive in the race for an outright semifinal slot in the Smart PBA Fiesta Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Aces made up for the absence of reigning MVP Willie Miller and conquered the Tigers' overwhelming edge in size by gang-rebounding all night and making all the stops in the stretch to raise their record to 9-7.
That mark is good for a tie for third place with idle Magnolia as the Aces won for the seventh time in their last eight games while mightily bouncing back from a 20-point blowout loss to Sta. Lucia last week.
"We really needed to make this a defensive battle and I think we did that. We gave them problems throughout the game," said Alaska coach Tim Cone.
With Miller out because of a bout with chicken pox, the Aces played as a team of five players starring the hard-working Randy Holcomb, who came up with 20 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.
The Aces outrebounded the Tigers, 53-37 and 16-7 on the offensive end even with Coca-Cola having Jason Dixon and Asi Taulava.
"It wasn't a beautiful game, but today's game was very epic," Cone added. "Teams are so bunched up (in the standings) now that everyone has a sense of desperation in them, to say the least.
"It was the biggest game in the conference for us so far."
The Tigers slumped to 9-8 after taking a third straight loss and things certainly don't look good for Binky Favis and his boys, who opened up this tournament looking like the team to beat.
Coca-Cola's best record, granting that it wins over Sta. Lucia at the end of its elimination schedule, would be 10-8, and with idle Air21 already with 11 wins and a handful of others capable of getting there, it seems that the Tigers would have to settle for a quarterfinal berth at best.
Alaska survived despite going scoreless in the final 1:27 after Sonny Thoss scored on a follow-up off a Jeffrey Cariaso miss that made it 77-70.
A comedy of errors followed with the Tigers managing only three points from there with Cesar Catli missing two three-pointers in the dying seconds.
Miller, who will see the team physician today to get clearance to play against Magnolia tomorrow, sat out for the first time in 143 games.
But the Aces didn't miss his 18.6-point, 5.1-rebound and 3.9-assist average with Cariaso and Larry Fonacier accounting for 22 points and seven rebounds.
The scores:
First Game
ALASKA 77--Holcomb 20, Thoss 12, Cariaso 12, De La Cruz 11, Fonacier 10, Ferriols 8, Tenorio 4, Capus 0, Hugnatan 0.
COCA-COLA 73--Copeland 18, Dixon 18, Catli 17, Belasco 8, Taulava 6, Macapagal 2, Cabagnot 2, Telan 2, Buenafe 0, Dimaunahan 0.
Quarters: 22-13; 33-34; 55-54; 77-73
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