Alaska’s Calvin Abueva shoots over Jay Washington during Game 4 of their semifinals series on Sunday. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Alaska jumped to an early lead and never looked back to crush GlobalPort anew, 109-84, for a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven semifinals series in the 2016 Smart Bro PBA Philippine Cup Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Calvin Abueva had 20 points and 13 rebounds in just 21 minutes while Dondon Hontiveros and RJ Jazul combined for seven 3-pointers — finishing with 16 and 14 points, respectively — for the Aces.
“I don’t it’s any secret I am blessed to coach the guys that I get to coach. You saw their energy today, I did and I’m proud of them. They’re committed to lay their hearts out on the floor and I can’t ask anything more,” said Alaska head coach Alex Compton, whose team opened the game with seven unanswered points.
Terrence Romeo scored a game-high 24 points to lead GlobalPort, but he hasn’t been the same player as he was in the semifinals opener when he put up a career-high 41 points with Alaska appeared to have figured out the high-octane offense of the Batang Pier.
The Aces, who have now won three straight after dropping Game 1, go for a slot in the finals on Tuesday night also at the same venue, but Compton knows it won’t be easy to close out a team like GlobalPort.
“I don’t believe that anything is over until the final buzzer sounds.”
The Batang Pier made efforts to come back but they never really threatened with the Aces having an answer each time.
Alaska drew 75 bench points led by Abueva and Jazul. Chris Banchero and Rome dela Rosa added 10 and nine points, respectively while Cyrus Baguio and Vic Manuel had eight apiece.
Manuel delivered the exclamation point on another dominating win for the Aces as his emphatic slam pushed the lead to 24, 104-80, with exactly 3:00 left.