CALVIN Abueva (right) of Alaska grabs a rebound against Barangay Ginebra’s Japeth Aguilar, who celebrated his birthday with a series-clinching victory. RODEL ROTONI
MANILA, Philippines — Rediscovering its dominating form in a do-or-die game, Barangay Ginebra claimed a seat in the PLDT MyDSL Philippine Cup’s Final Four Saturday night with the same ease that the Gin Kings flashed in topping the elimination round.
The Gin Kings nailed all sorts of shots and pounced on Alaska’s cold-shooting to rout the Aces, 108-95, in their KO match to chalk up their most impressive win of the season at a packed Cuneta Astrodome.
And that meant a best-of-seven semifinal clash with either Talk ‘N Text or San Mig Coffee, squads with rich championship histories that will collide in their own version of the decider Sunday at 5 p.m. also at the Pasay venue.
Intense
“We played with such a high level of intensity,” an ecstatic Ginebra coach Ato Agustin told reporters. “The energy was also there. Ginebra is used to playing in situations like this (knockout) even when I was still playing.
“And of course, with the help of the fans, it was like our home court out there.”
Japeth Aguilar celebrated his 27th birthday with a career-high 29 points and 13 rebounds and LA Tenorio finished with 22 points, seven assists and the same number of rebounds as the Kings dominated every aspect of the match.
Strong start
Ginebra blasted out of the gates hard and never looked back, zooming to commanding leads early and moving ahead by as many as 31 points in the third quarter that proved too much for the game Aces.
To its credit, Alaska—even with things falling terribly out of its way—also played with the heart of a champion, never giving up until the final buzzer despite being booed by a capacity crowd on every possession.
Alaska trailed, 76-45, early in the third period, but that didn’t stop the Aces from cutting that down to 13 late in regulation.
Fire in their eyes
“Yesterday during practice, I saw the fire in the eyes of my players,” Agustin said. “And I told them that if we come out the same way for this game, we were going to win. And the players came out with more (fire).”
JV Casio and Gabby Espinas worked themselves ragged to shoot 16 points each and pace the Aces, who joined Air21, Barako Bull, Meralco and Globalport in an early vacation.
Season high
There were four more who scored at least 11 points for Ginebra, whose 69 first half points were the most by any team in a half this season.
Ginebra was so in-form that it scored a combined 62 points off second chance points, turnovers and fastbreaks—and Alaska didn’t even reach 62 points until the end of the third period.
“That’s a lot,” said Agustin. “We can play this way again in our future games. And we don’t care who we play (in the semifinals). We will be ready for either Talk ‘N Text or San Mig.”
The scores:
BRGY. GINEBRA 108—Aguilar 29, Tenorio 22, Ellis 16, Baracael 12, Caguioa 12, Slaughter 11, Helterbrand 5, Mamaril 1, Reyes 0, Monfort 0, Urbiztondo 0, Faundo 0.
ALASKA 95—Casio 16, Espinas 16, Jazul 14, Abueva 13, Thoss 13, Baguio 13, Hontiveros 6, Avenido 4, Dela Cruz 0, Eman 0.
Quarters: 39-21, 69-43, 86-62, 108-95
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