Arwind Santos (SMB) vs Cyrus Baguio (Alaska). PBA PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Alaska is making a habit of coming back from double-digit holes.
After rallying to win in Games 1 and 3, the Aces had climbed back anew to beat the San Miguel Beermen, 87-76, and force a deciding Game 7 Sunday night before a raucous crowd at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“The funny thing is we’ve been through it so much with this team and I wasn’t giving up,” said Alaska head coach Alex Compton, who’s looking to steer his team to a championship in just his second conference at the helm, when asked what went through his mind the moment San Miguel got off to another early surge with his key player Calvin Abueva already with three fouls.
“For me it’s just the belief and character of these guys. I didn’t put any character in them it’s just who they are,” Compton added. “They don’t stop playing. They just never stop. I would’ve panicked if this was the first time we fell behind early but we’ve been through this in the previous games.”
The Aces fell behind by 14 early before quickly turning things around in the squander and lead by as much 17, 83-66, on a basket by JVee Casio with under four minutes left.
The Beermen threatened — trimming the Aces’ lead down to seven, 83-76, on back-to-back drives by Marcio Lassiter with still 1:27 remaining.
But Alaska center Sonny Thoss doused San Miguel’s fiery rally with an open jumper to seal the game, 85-76, with 42 ticks to go.
Veteran swingman Dondon Hontiveros scored 10 of his team-high 18 points in the second quarter, where Alaska gained control.
The Game 7 on Wednesday night also at the Big Dome will be the first one in an all-Filipino Cup since Talk ‘N Text outlasted Alaska in 2009.
Thoss outplayed San Miguel Beer’s reigning MVP June Mar Fajardo — just missing a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds on 6-of-9 shooting from the field.
The 6-foot-10 Fajardo had his fewest points through six games here in the Finals with only nine points on 2-of-7 shooting in 35 minutes of action.
Scoreless the past two games, JVee Casio recovered from a slump — hitting all of his nine points in the second half.
“I just put the past two games behind me and focused on this game,” Casio said.
Arwind Santos posted a game-high 24 points for the Beermen. He already had three triples through the first 17 minutes of the game but his outside shooting got sour the rest of the way and wound up with a 4-of-14 clip from long distance.
Marcio Lassiter fired 19 but he and Santos didn’t get enough help from the others unlike the Aces, who had seven players with at least six points.
The Aces improved to 12-0 this conference when holding their opponents below 80 points.
Abueva played only 16 minutes after being hobbled by foul trouble early. He scored five points and grabbed six rebounds.