ACES, MIXERS FACE JUDGMENT DAY
This side of a double-knockout Saturday will have one team marching on with high aspirations and another bidding its own lofty goal goodbye.
Stakes are high as Alaska and San Mig Super Coffee clash in the deciding Game Three of their PLDT Home TVolution PBA Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinal faceoff at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Aces hope to keep their title-retention quest alive while the Mixers look to keep the flame of their campaign for a third straight championship burning.
The Mixers forged the decider as they shook off a hard struggle in the first three quarters and unleashed one mighty run in the payoff period to blast the Aces, 70-65, on Wednesday.
“Although we got Game Two, we still feel we really haven’t figured out a way to consistently penetrate Alaska’s defense,” said San Mig Coffee coach Tim Cone.
“We’ll just keep on grinding and see what we can do. We’re hoping along the way we can get ourselves into the next playoff round,” Cone added.
Alaska coach Luigi Trillo complained of poor officiating in the last game.
“To stand a chance, we will just have to tell our guys to play past the missed calls,” Trillo said.
The youthful Alaska bench tactician admits, though, it’s not easy playing San Mig Coffee.
“It’s a team that is very good aiming for a third straight championship. It’s not going to be easy but our guys are capable,” Trillo said.
Trillo mentioned Marc Pingris as among their biggest problems. “He’s eating out bigs for breakfast,” he said.
Pingris, though still recovering from a bruised rib, provided tremendous energy on both ends while Mark Barroca, Joe Devance, James Yap and James Mays delivered the key buckets in a decisive run the Mixers unleashed in the fourth to stay alive in the series.
After playing catch-up basketball nearly all the first 40 minutes of play, the Mixers came through with a 16-to-nothing run to turn the game around and subsequently stay in the running for a treble.
Held to just 12 points in each of the first two quarters, the Mixers fell behind by a huge 13-point deficit in this low-scoring game and were still behind at 51-57 before finding a good rhythm to steal the game.
“It’s grind out basketball, pure and simple,” said Cone.
“It’s a huge struggle playing against the Alaska defense. They’re defending on a championship level. It’s hard to find gaps and breaks inside their defense. It’s incredible, solid and quite frustrating,” Cone also said.
“It’s hard to get the flow and rhythm. I’m just proud of the guys they hung in there, grinding and pulling out the win,” he added. “Whether we can pull it out again, I don’t know. I hope so.” (SB)
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