ALASKA GAINS HEADSTART
Alaska drew first blood versus Rain or Shine in their PBA Philippine Cup best-of-seven semifinal series, fashioning out a hard-earned 87-80 win at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City Thursday night.
The Aces fought back from an early 17-point deficit and engaged the Elasto Painters in a battle in the final half before going for the kill in the crunch.
Sonny Thoss played his best game in the season thus far, helping Calvin Abueva, Jvee Casio, Cyrus Baguio and RJ Jazul provide the Aces the push as they overcame the E-Painters in this game marked by wild momentum swings.
The Aces made their biggest run at the finish and thus seized the decisive head start in the race-to-four series.
“I thought early on Rain or Shine exerted their will, and we got a little frustrated. But in the second half, we put the frustration aside and played the game,” said Alaska coach Alex Compton.
“I’m proud of the guys. They weathered the storm. The guys didn’t stop playing hard,” added Compton, hoping they learned their lesson in their Governors’ Cup best-of-five semis showdown with the E-Painters.
The Aces took the 1-0 and 2-1 leads but the E-Painters stole the series, 3-2, in the end.
Thoss and his teammates showed character in this particular game, bucking a wobbly start and a battle in the final half to pull off the win.
“It means we can beat them,” said Compton.
Down by four at 73-77 in the last five minutes, the Aces unleashed a 14-3 endgame flurry to pull through.
The Aces put the brakes on the Elasto Painters on several instances, the most crucial with their great hustles in the last five minutes, yielding only a three-pointer by Gabe Norwood.
The rest of the E-Painters were choked dead in the crunch.
Thoss put in a personal conference high of 16 points on top of nine rebounds, and reserves RJ Jazul and Exciminiano also outdid themselves, chipping in 12 and six markers, respectively.
Casio shared game scoring honors with Thoss with 16, Abueva churned out yet another double-double game with 14 points and the same number of rebounds while Baguio logged in seven markers, nine boards, two assists and two steals.
The E-Painters took an early double-digit spread at 25-14 and led by as many as 17 at 34-17, but the Aces responded and fought to within three, 40-43, at the half.
Rain or Shine dominated the first 24 minutes as the E-Painters pummeled the Aces, 28-17, on points in the paint and, 14-6, off fastbreaks.
The Aces made it close at the turn as they cashed in on crucial stops, forcing the usually steady E-Painters to 10 turnovers just in the first two quarters. RoS is second best in the league with just 13.5 errors a game. (SB)
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