Dozier, Thoss owe individual awards to teammates and coaches
By Mark Giongco
Alaska’s formidable frontcourt of Rob Dozier and Sonny Thoss played a big part in the Aces’ championship run.
Alaska’s formidable frontcourt of Rob Dozier and Sonny Thoss played a big part in the Aces’ championship run.
Alaska continued to be the bane of Ginebra’s existence this conference on Friday. The Aces reprised their game one win over the Kings, but in a slightly different manner as last Wednesday, 104-90, on Friday in the 2013 PBA Commissioner’s Cup finals at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Alaska hasn’t beaten San Mig Coffee in nine straight tries. But that was before the Aces won three straight in the best-of-five semifinals series to dethrone the defending 2013 PBA Commissioner’s Cup champion Mixers.
The biggest-ever crowd in the PBA saw a classic come-from-behind victory, but not from the team a vast majority of the 23,108 souls in attendance came to see.
Alaska finally won one over San Mig Coffee and made former coach Tim Cone miss his pre-game prediction of a “magnificent battle” by a mile.
Don’t expect the offense to come easy for both Alaska and San Mig Coffee in their next game or perhaps the whole series.
It was a tale of two halves for both Alaska and San Mig Coffee in Game 1 of their best-of-five semifinals series Saturday night.
Denzel Bowles shook off his slump just in time to lift San Mig Coffee over Alaska, 71-69, to take a 1-0 lead in their PBA Commissioner’s Cup best-of-five semifinals series at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Saturday night.
Top seed Alaska held off a late run by Air21 to fashion out an 87-81 win and book the first semifinals ticket Saturday in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
It took the league’s top team Alaska to put a halt to Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s run.
Dondon Hontiveros made seven three-pointers but it was his defense late against Rain or Shine last Friday which mattered most.
Dondon Hontiveros fouled out with still 20 seconds left in overtime Friday night but by that time, the damage was already done.
Alaska rose from 22 points down to stun Rain or Shine, 89-84, in overtime and grab the top spot Friday night in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
