Gabby Espinas of Alaska vs Isaac Holtein and Val Acuna of San Mig Coffee
MANILA, Philippines — San Mig Coffee head coach Tim Cone couldn’t help but blurt out how frustrating it is to play against a solid defensive team in Alaska.
But the Mixers appeared to have found an opening they had been so desperately looking for following a 70-65 win over the defending champion Aces Wednesday to extend their best-of-three quarterfinals series to a deciding Game 3.
“This is just grind-it-out basketball pure and simple,” Cone told reporters after his team went on a telling 16-0 run over an eight-minute span in the fourth quarter to stun Alaska.
“It’s just a huge struggle playing against Alaska’s defense. It’s hard to find any gaps or breaks or anything inside their defense. It’s just so incredibly solid. Quite frustrating to be honest with you. Frustrating to play,” admitted Cone.
Defense dominated the game with both teams shooting just 35% from the field before the Mixers found a solution to break down the Aces’ defense at least for this game.
Marc Pingris bounced back from a subpar Game 1 outing with 17 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks while Joe Devance had 13 points. Import James Mays tallied 12 points and 11 rebounds.
“It’s hard to get a flow or a rhythm they take you out on the things that you want to do. I’m just real proud of the guys for hanging, staying in there and grinding and pulling out the win,” Cone said.
But it suddenly came easy for San Mig Coffee in the fourth quarter.
Dondon Hontiveros put Alaska ahead 57-51 at the 9:14 mark of the final frame before San Mig Coffee made its surge.
Mark Barroca clearly got away with a traveling violation as he was awarded with the basket plus the foul. He completed the three-point play that finally gave the Mixers the lead 58-57 with 5:42 left after trailing by as much as 13.
San Mig Coffee, which ended its losing skid as well as Alaska’s six-game winning run, took a 10-point lead 67-57 on a short hook by Devance with 1:16 remaining.
“We found some gaps in their offense and that kind of lifted us up.”
Scoreless for eight minutes, the Aces tried to make up for their drought with Hontiveros and JVee Casio hitting two quick triples that brought the Mixers’ lead down to just four 69-65 with 50.9 ticks left.
Alaska fell short on its comeback with Rob Dozier, who had 22 points but went scoreless in the final 12 minutes, and Casio missing 3-pointers.
“They’re defending at a championship level without a doubt but somehow we won it and I’m not sure how,” said Cone.
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