Alaska pulls away in the second half, beats San Mig Coffee

Sonny Thoss of Alaska (dark). PBA IMAGE by KC Cruz

MANILA, Philippines — Alaska ran away late in the second half to beat San Mig Coffee, 88-75, in the 2014 PLDT myDSL Philippine Cup Friday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The Aces had five players in double-figure scoring with Sonny Thoss and Calvin Abueva each notching double-doubles.

“Our first group is there but guys in the second group Jazul and Espinas, just a collective team effort. We knew they were tough coming in with a two-game winning streak,” said Alaska head coach Luigi Trillo.

“They also had some sick guys and we took advantage of that. Pingris really changes that team so no Ping they’re very different,” added Trillo, whose team improved to 4-6.

The Aces pulled away in the final two quarters — breaking loose from a 35-deadlock in the first half.

Starting frontcourt Thoss and Gabby Espinas did most of their damage in the second half.

Thoss scored half of his 16 points, including back-to-back inside baskets stretched Alaska’s buffer to 17, 78-61, midway through the fourth period while Espinas had 12 of his 15 points in the final 24 minutes.

Calvin Abueva also had 15 points and 10 rebounds in his first crack at his former teammate with San Sebastian in the NCAA Ian Sangalang while Cyrus Baguio and backup guard RJ Jazul had 14 and 10 points, respectively.

“In the Ginebra game, third quarter we gave them eight turnovers. In this game, we kept reminded them that you got to take care of the basketball. We had 13 turnovers, five in the second half we did a good job on that. We ran on our own terms,”

The Mixers, whose two-game run were snapped as their record dropped to 3-6, drew 21 points from James Yap and 13 from the rookie Sangalang but didn’t have the same intensity at the defensive end without the dynamic Marc Pingris due to injury.

Alaska out-rebounded San Mig Coffee, 49-37, and had 15 second chance points.