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ALASKA LEVELS SERIES, 2-2
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ALASKA showed up with a bit more spunk than Talk N Text to carve out a 104-99 victory Friday and even up their PBA Philippine Cup semifinals series at two games apiece at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
Jayvee Casio, Cyrus Baguio and Calvin Abueva led a determined bunch of Aces who atoned for their sorry performances the last time out by repeatedly making the crucial plays and spelling the biggest difference.
In the end, Alaska bounced back from a 79-93 loss in Game Three last Wednesday and turned the race-to-four duel into a best-of-three with Game 5 set 5 p.m. Sunday at the same Pasay City venue.
“It’s just one of those games, a grind-out type of win,” said Alaska coach Luigi Trillo, adding the teams’ outputs did not really reflect the kind of defensive battle that was just waged.
“We know Talk N Text is an explosive team, so we tried to limit them and we did,” he said.
Indeed, the Aces were determination personified, especially in the third quarter when they held the Tropang Texters down to just 18 points. That gave the Uytengsu franchise enough of a momentum it built on for as much as an 87-74 lead.
The defending champion grittily fought back and even trimmed the deficit to just 92-94, but timely baskets by Abueva and Baguio and pressure-packed charities by Casio and Dondon Hontiveros from the stripe kept TNT at bay and secured the win.
“We know nothing is gonna be easy against this team,” said Trillo, noting how his charges were beaten off the boards, 40-53, including 8-20 off the offensive glass.
“Our concern is rebounding. They really crashed the boards, really worked hard. You’ve got to give them credit. We’ll have a handful the next couple of games.”
After scoring just six points in Game 3, Casio finished with a gamehigh 22 to go with five assists.
Both ejected for flagrant fouls in Game 3, Baguio wound up with 18 points and Abueva 15 on top of 11 rebounds and four blocked shots.
Jimmy Alapag had 17 points and five feeds to pace TNT. Jayson Castro added 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists, Ranidel de Ocampo 14 points and eight rebounds and Kelly Williams 11 points and as many boards.
Larry Fonacier and Harvey Carey also scored in double digits, but they and the rest of the Texters all came up short, more so when Castro missed a drive with them trailing, 94-99.
Baguio started the ball rolling for Alaska, but his biggest shot of the game was when he boomed in a trey that made it 99-94.
“All we did was make it a best-of-three,” said Trillo. “We can’t celebrate. We just have to go back to the drawing board and focus on Game 5. Adjustments are being made all around.”
Hontiveros also came up with his biggest game of the series yet.
The pre-season acquisition, who scored a grand total of 12 points in the series’ first three games, scored 13 points, seven coming during a 14-5 run winding up the third period that gave Alaska an 81-74 spread.
Hontiveros also opened up the final quarter with a fastbreak conversion off a turnover before Casio followed suit with a drive and Baguio a sneaky layup off Ali Peek that gave the Aces their 14-point lead, still 9:30 to go.
In all, Alaska made 10 of its 20 three-point tries while TNT nine of 22 attempts but only two in the entire second half.
Before the Texters’ snipings went cold it was scorching hot, enabling it to take a 56-55 edge at the half.
It was actually Alaska which started connecting from beyond the arc but the Texters made five of their three-pointers to complete their comeback from as much as a 15-24 deficit in the early goings.
Thrown out and fined P30,000 by the league for his flagrant foul-penalty 2 on Castro in Game 3, Baguio readily showed he is set for atonement with 13 first half points. His jumper and trey also gave him the markers he needed to become the 66th member of the all-time 5,000 Points Club.
The Texters’ first half offense was more spread out with De Ocampo and Fonacier leading the way with 10 and eight points, respectively.
Casio already matched his Game 3 output right in the opening quarter, although a jumper by Raphie Reyes and charities from RJ Jazul and Hontiveros gave Alaska its nine-point spread. (NC)
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EDITORS' PICK
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