Globalport breezes past Alaska for a 3-game streak

Cyrus Baguio of Alaska (dark) vs RR Garcia of GlobalPort (light). Nuki Sabio/PBA

MANILA, Philippines — Globalport sustained a spirited start en route to a 94-84 win over Alaska, its third straight, Friday in the 2013 PLDT MyDSL PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

It was the first three-game streak for the young franchise of the Batang Pier, with the full potential of their stacked line-up finally starting to show. They improved to 4-3.

“We won’t look at the record, we just want to play hard every time, we just want to work very hard and the wins will come to us,” head coach Richie Ticzon said.

Sol Mercado poured 26 points, rookie Terrence Romeo added 21 while RR Garcia took care of the momentum-breaking 3s in the fourth for a 13-point performance for the streaking Batang Pier.

The Batang Pier, which even led as as many as 21 and by 77-55 late in the third, had their lead slowly trimmed down by the Aces midway the payoff period.

But Garcia helped quell the uprising, knocking down back-to-back triples with 3:36 left, then Globalport clamped down on defense the rest of the way.

“We are able to play good defense. We executed well down the stretch and sustain the runs in the second half,” said the neophyte Ticzon.

The Batang Pier got 23 points off turnovers, which was their biggest edge over Alaska, which only managed seven in that department.

The Aces, who missed the services of Calvin Abueva due to an ankle sprain, conjured countless runs to get back in the game but just couldn’t sustain the momentum.

Starting guard JVee Casio came up with a career-high of 28 points, but it wasn’t enough to steer Alaska over the hump as the Aces slid to 2-5.