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HOT START CARRIES ALASKA TO GAME 1 WIN
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ALASKA needed any opening it could get and was inadvertently given one by Barangay Ginebra itself.
The Aces were quick in pouncing on the opportunity for an 87-70 victory Wednesday and the headstart in their PBA Commissioner’s Cup championship duel before a boisterous crowd of 19,678 paying fans at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Ginebra had a listless start and Alaska used it to control the majority of the contest, post as much as a 54-24 lead and take the opener of the best-of-five series sponsored by Cebuana Lhuillier.
“This is huge,” said Alaska coach Luigi Trillo of the confidence-boost gained from the win that is his team’s third straight over Ginebra in the mid-season tourney.
“When you look at it, the games are set every other day,” he added. “We took care of business today. This is a short series. They have to figure (things) out for Friday and turn around and do it again Sunday.”
There’s little tinkering to be done on Alaska’s game, which is anchored on making stops.
Ginebra felt it right away in the first quarter, when it scored just six points that still made it to the record books and from which Alaska built on.
The six points in the first quarter is the lowest in any opening period and equals the third lowest all-time score in any canto in PBA finals history.
“We need to play to our identity. They run-and-gun, get a lot of energy from the crowd when they do certain things,” said Trillo. (But) we gave them six points in the first quarter. I think that’s our identity, defense.”
RJ Jazul scored 16 points to lead Alaska and spearhead the 37-28 difference in bench scoring while Rob Dozier had 14 points on top of 22 rebounds.
Sonny Thoss, Calvin Abueva, Jayvee Casio and Cyrus Baguio each scored at least 10 points for the Aces, who try to make it a more daunting 2-0 lead through Game 2 set Friday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Ginebra needs to do a better job on the offensive end.
The Kings went 26-for-84 from the field to the Aces’ 32-for-70 clip. In fact, the perennial crowd favorites did not shoot better than 38 percent from the floor, although they did manage to trim the deficit to just 68-79.
By then, however, there were only 2:51 left and Alaska had little trouble fending off the threat.
Vernon Macklin’s 16 points and 14 rebounds paced Ginebra, which drew only 14 points from LA Tenorio after the playmaker, steady in the thrilling 3-2 semifinals duel with Talk N Text, missed his first eight attempts.
Tenorio did come alive in the fourth period with nine of his points as he joined hands with Macklin in whittling what stood as a 48-70 hole.
“I thought we did a fairly good job on Vernon. We were able to control him,” said Trillo. “You can’t stop him but you can control him. I also thought LA struggled a little bit. We knew he’d come out aggressive, try and take over the game.”
The uprising, plainly put, was too little too late and Alaska had the comfortable cushion when Thoss’ charities capped the Aces’ 8-0 surge and pegged a 54-24 count, barely two minutes into the second half.
The difference got down to 48-64, but Abueva strung up four straight points to make it a 67-48 count going to the fourth.
Ginebra started the game poorly before finding its touch in the second period. But Alaska has gained enough of a momentum by then to erect as much as a 38-13 lead before settling for a 46-24 cushion at the turn.
Jazul had 10 points at the half to lead all scorers while Dozier only had seven but was already sitting on 11 boards.
So seemingly desperate has the situation become for Ginebra coach Alfrancis Chua that he was forced to field Mark Caguioa for five minutes starting at the 10:34 mark of the second before going deeper in his bench.
That move paid some as the deficit was whittled to 24-42, off Rico Maierhofer’s two charities, but that was the closest the Kings would come.
The Kings dug themselves the deep hole by missing their first 12 shots from the field and going just 2-for-24 in the opening period to trail 28-6.
Alaska helped Ginebra along with a balanced offensive that saw its relievers scoring as many as their starters. (NC)
The scores:
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