San Mig Coffee ousts Alaska, completes semis cast

San Mig Coffee’s PJ Simon of (dark) and Alaska’s RJ Jazul (light). PHOTO BY NUKI SABIO/PBA

MANILA, Philippines — PJ Simon scored 21 points as San Mig Coffee knocked off defending champion Alaska, 79-65, to complete the semifinals cast of the 2014 PLDT Home Tvolution PBA Commissioner’s Cup Saturday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Import James Mays also rose to the occasion with 17 points and 24 rebounds for the Mixers, who came back from a 0-1 hole to oust the third-seeded Aces in the best-of-three quarterfinals.

“To be absolutely honest I don’t think we’d be here. I just thought that Alaska was playing at a too high of a level to be able to beat them twice,” said San Mig Coffee head coach Tim Cone.

“At this point I feel very fortunate but you get in the playoffs a lot, then you get into these Game 7s and Game 5s, these kind of knockout games, these situations, these guys that I have they just kind of have a blueprint on what’s successful for them so they don’t really have that deep anxiety and deep panic coming into these kind of games. They’re comfortable playing these kinds of games.”

“You can see it the way PJ played tonight, Ping and Mark Barroca again he comes into these games and just plays that way. I got to give a lot of credit to ‘Big James’ (Mays). He did all the dirty work. He rebounded and defended and he was our physical presence inside,” commended Cone.

And the Mixers’ blueprint for success had those four players’ fingerprints all over it. Simon hit timely baskets, Mark Barroca kept his team’s lead safe amid an Alaska comeback bid while Mays and Marc Pingris made sure nothing would come easy for the Aces.

Barroca scored nine of his 14 points in the final frame while Pingris, coming out with his usual unparalleled intensity and energy, wound up with 10 points, four rebounds and three steals.

Rob Dozier led the Aces, who won six straight games at one point in the conference including Game 1, with 23 points and 16 rebounds but only registered seven points in the second half where the Mixers started to take control.

JVee Casio had 14 for Alaska, which had to bleed for points – shooting just 35.5% from the field.

San Mig Coffee faces Air21, which will be riding high on its quarterfinals series win over heavily-favored San Miguel Beer, in a best-of-five semifinals showdown starting on Tuesday.

RELATED STORY

Rain or Shine survives Meralco in OT, makes semis