ALASKA REGAINS UPPERHAND
EVERYTHING came together for Alaska Monday and end result was a 90-74 victory over Rain or Shine that gave the Aces the upper hand anew in their PBA Philippine Cup semifinal matchup at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Calvin “The Beast” Abueva came up with a career-best 28 points to go with 13 rebounds while Eric Menk, Cyrus Baguio and Jayvee Casio each scored at least 11 points in typifying Alaska’s balanced offense.
The real credit, according to coach Alex Compton, is the way his team managed to disrupt the Elasto Painters’ offense exemplified by the Aces holding the latter to just 27 points at the half, one of their lowest outputs ever.
From there Alaska went on to notch its second victory in three games of the best-of-seven series with Game 4 set Wednesday at the same Pasay City venue.
“I thought our defense was really good. It’s sort of the key for us sa conference na ito,” beamed Compton. “We gave up 27 points in the first half so i really liked the way our guys played defense.”
Raymund Almazan posted his own new career-high of 20 points but only Paul Lee was the lone other Rain or Shine player in double figures with 14 as the team as a whole struggled for practically the whole game and wound up shooting just 25-for-79 for the entire game.
Compounding matters for the E-Painters was the ejection of coach Yeng Guiao for incurring his second technical foul with still 9:16 left in the third period and Beau Belga following suit some four minutes later for the same offense.
It’s not that Alaska needed such boosts as its own game was a far cry from the way it played in a 95-102 loss in Game 2 last Saturday.
Although they made just 31 of 73 field attempts, the Aces more than supplemented by canning 29 of 44 free throw attempts to the E-Painters’ 21 of 24.
After winning its only quarter of the game in the third frame that enabled it to come within eight points, Rain or Shine’s struggles came to the fore anew after Almazan’s three-point play made it a 73-83 count, still 3:50 left.
The E-Painters could only score a point despite six offensive thrusts in the next three minutes while the 40-year-old Menk strung up three straight points and Abueva a floater that made it a 92-74 game.
Such an ending was not expected by the Rain or Shine diehards after their team stirred into life in the third period and crept to within 57-65, mainly through Lee, who scored 10 of his points in the quarter.
The two teams actually went without a three-point conversion in the first half with Rain or Shine going 0-for-14 and Alaska 0-for-10.
Lee broke the ice at the 9:34 mark of the third and followed it up with another following Guiao’s ejection.
Belga also had one trey before being tossed before Casio snapped Alaska out of its three-point doldrums with a rainbow shot that made it 57-45, 5:53 to go in the quarter.
The first half readily gave a glimpse of what was to come.
After trailing by as many as 17 points in Game 1 and by 21 last Saturday it was Alaska’s turn to dominate in the first half and post a 42-27 spread at the break.
Abueva already had 11 points after the first two quarters and joined hands with Menk and Dondon Hontiveros in a sustained attack from a 13-12 count and into Alaska’s first 14-point spread at 26-12.
Testament to Rain or Shine’s struggles was Almazan’s eight points being enough to lead the E-Painters after two quarters and those only after he shot 4-for-7 from the field.
Alaska’s fast-switching defense was part of it, although Rain or Shine did get got some open looks but failed to find any rhythm in its offense. Consequently, coach Guiao’s charges shot 10-for-41 from the floor.
Aside from harassing the E-Painters into committing 11 turnovers, the Aces also attacked the basket more and got rewarded with 29 free throws – including three off technical fouls on Guiao, assistant Caloy Garcia and Belga – from which they made 18. (NC)
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