Banchero nails game winner as Alaska nips Meralco

The Alaska Milk Aces essayed the most spectacular comeback in the season thus far, fighting back from nine points down on tons of scrappy plays for an 81-79 nail-biter over the Meralco Bolts in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Wednesday night.

Calvin Abueva showcased devil-may-care stunts while Jvee Casio, RJ Jazul and Chris Banchero fired three-pointers that keyed the unbelievable siege forging a five-way tie at fifth place among Alaska Milk, Meralco, Phoenix, Star and TNT KaTropa at 2-2.

It had looked a won ball game for the Bolts stolen by the Aces on an 11-2 flurry in the last two minutes.

“Down by nine in the last two minutes, I told the guys ‘hey, we have time. One at a time, we’ve done this before,'” said Alaska coach Alex Compton. “And what a time for Jvee, RJ and Chris to step up and make
those three-point shots.”

Casio and Jazul had their treys in a 10-to-nothing roll that pushed the Aces ahead at 78-77 with 27.3 seconds to go.

Then Jonathan Grey made the biggest play so far in his young PBA career, driving by Abueva to get Meralco back in the lead at 79-78 with time down to 15.1 seconds.

But the Aces showed their resiliency all the way.

Alaska ran a perfect play that had Banchero knocking in the winning triple from the right flank with 4.1 ticks to go, and the Aces went on to complete the stirring come-from-behind victory.

Making it two in a row following a 95-84 win over the GlobalPort Batang Pier the last time, the Aces hit the .500 mark. They lost their first two games in the tourney versus NLEX and San Miguel Beer.

Abueva didn’t score a single point in the payoff period but was a big factor on his scrappy plays at the finish.

“It was his uncanny ability to make his teammates better and his unbelievable energy. I have to praise Calvin for that,” said Compton.

Vic Manuel was a tower of power for the team early on, collecting 22 points and 10 rebounds.

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