ALASKA FORGES PLAYOFF FOR LAST Q’FINAL BERTH
ALASKA’s stint in the PLDT myDSL PBA Philippine Cup is far from over.
With JVee Casio and Gabby Espinas leading the way and the rest of the Aces chipping in, they fashioned an 89-80 victory over Barako Bull Sunday to arrange a do-or-die match for the last quarterfinals slot at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Casio and Espinas were at their fieriest during a decisive fourth quarter attack as they fully broke out of the clutches of the Energy and into a lead that got as high as 87-72, only 3:07 left.
The victory cut short Alaska’s skid at three games and enabled it to finish the eliminations with a 5-9 win-loss card and a tie with Barako Bull, GlobalPort and Meralco for sixth to ninth spot.
Due to higher quotients, Barako finished the elims sixth and GlobalPort seventh while Alaska and Meralco slug it out for the eighth and last quarterfinals slot Monday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The winner goes on to tackle top seed Barangay Ginebra and its twice-to-beat advantage in the last eight while the loser joins Air21 in the sidelines.
Aces head coach Luigi Trillo is just thankful for the opportunity after what his team went through earlier in the conference.
“We basically just lived to fight another day,” said Trillo. “It’s been painful for us this conference. Out of our nine losses, six could have gone either way.”
The Aces and Bolts split their first two meetings and Trillo said his team will be bringing the lessons it learned from their earlier losses in the knockout game.
“It’s about finding yourself and today we played much better in terms of killer instinct,” he stated.
Casio typified that with 24 points along with seven assists and so did Espinas with his 21 points and nine rebounds, figures that fully stand out in an otherwise tight contest that featured six deadlocks and eight lead changes.
They also scored seven points each during Alaska’s break from a 64-65 count, a charge in which Cyrus Baguio, Tony dela Cruz and RJ Jazul also did their part.
The Aces actually needed to win by 23 points to earn outright passage into the next round, but could not achieve the feat when the likes of Willie Miller and Willy Wilson kept Barako Bull safely within the losing margin the Energy could afford.
Ronjay Buenafe scored 14 points to lead the overachieving Barako Bull, with rookie Carlo Lastimosa the lone other Energy in double figures with 11.
Hurting Barako Bull’s chances and the hopes of those wishing for it to eliminate Alaska outright were Mark Isip and Rico Maierhofer fouling out one after another in a bid to stop Espinas’ dominating ways inside.
The hopes of those rooting for Barako Bull earlier were fanned when Calvin Abueva fouled out with still 10:23 left. The recipient of his last foul was Lastimosa, whose ensuing charities made it a 65-64 count for Barako.
Any Barako Bull celebration was immediately calmed down when Casio buried his fourth triple of the game, sparking what would prove to be a 23-7 exchange over the next seven minutes.
With the Energy’s finishing at No. 6, they will square off with No. 3 seed Petron Blaze in a best-of-three quarterfinal starting Tuesday also at the MOA Arena.
Twice-to-beat and second-seed Rain or Shine tangles with No. 7-ranked GlobalPort while its San Mig Coffee and Talk ‘N Text in the other best-of-3 quarterfinal. (NC)
The scores:
ALASKA 89 – Casio 24, Espinas 21, Jazul 11, Abueva 9, Baguio 8, Thoss 6, Eman 6, Dela Cruz 4, Hontiveros 0, Avenido 0, Ramos 0, Buenafe 0.
BARAKO BULL 80 – Buenafe 14, Lastimosa 11, Pena 8, Macapagal 7, Miller 7, Jensen 6, Wilson 6, Isip 6, Pennisi 6, Intal 5, Maierhofer 2, Miranda 2, Marcelo 0, Labagala 0.
Quarterscores: 22-17, 41-38, 62-63, 89-80
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