Alaska whips Air21, stops 2-game slide

ALASKA playmaker JV Casio eyes an open teammate as he tries to drive past Air21 counterpart Simon Atkins in last night’s PBA Commissioner’s Cup encounter at Smart Araneta Coliseum. The game was still being played at press time. AUGUST DELA CRUZ

MANILA, Philippines—Rob Dozier and Sonny Thoss did the most damage on Air21 in the fourth period last night as Alaska scored an 88-78 decision of the Express to stop its bleeding in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup eliminations at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The duo, the heart and soul of Alaska’s inside game, took turns in hurting the Express as Alaska broke away from a 70-all count to snap a two-game slide and close out a hectic 12-day schedule with a 2-3 record.

“We have a lot of time to get better,” Alaska coach Luigi Trillo said. “We did a better job playing defense today. That was a tough stretch for us, five games in 12 days.”

Air21 went down to 2-2 overall after getting just 16 points and 10 rebounds from import Herve Lamizana.

Dozier, the Best Import awardee last year, had 23 points and nine rebounds, while Thoss contributed 14 and 12. They also combined for nine blocks.

Thoss hit a basket that made it 80-72 heading into the final 2:49, before Dozier put the game away with an inside stab for 82-74 with just 70 seconds left.

Meanwhile, reports on Gabe Freeman coming in to replace Leon Rodgers at Barangay Ginebra is completely false.

An option that Ginebra is looking at is to lure Darnell Jackson out of Meralco, which enlisted him as a backup to Brian Butch.

Signing Freeman would make Ginebra give away a lot of height and heft in a conference where 6-foot-8 imports are allowed. He was measured previously at 6-5.

The Rookie of the Year race this season has a new contender in Ian Sangalang of San Mig Coffee.

Dismissed in the early part of the season as someone too raw for the award, the 6-foot-7 Sangalang has been making a strong case for himself in the past games for the Mixers.

A one-time NCAA MVP with the San Sebastian College Stags, the 22-year-old Sangalang chalked up averages of 13 points and six rebounds for the period March 9 to 16 to earn his very first Accel-PBA Press Corps Player of the Week citation.

THE SCORES:

ALASKA 88—Dozier 23, Thoss 14, Abueva 13, Casio 10, Jazul 10, Hontiveros 6, Baguio 6, Dela Cruz 2, Espinas 2, Manuel 2, Reyes 0.

AIR21 78—Yeo 19, Lamizana 16, Taulava 11, Cardona 10, Borboran 9, Villanueva 5, Ramos 4, Burtscher 2, Atkins 2, Jaime 0, Poligrates 0.

Quarters: 19-16, 38-41, 61-62, 88-78

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