ALASKA SURGES AHEAD, FINALS WITHIN REACH
Henry Walker didn’t practice and had his injured elbow iced Monday.
Voila, he returned playing with controlled emotions and with steady hands propelling the Alaska Aces to the doorstep of a first Finals after their 2013 PBA Commissioner’s Cup title run.
Walker played above the pain and the physicality of the game, coming through with 26 points, 13 rebounds and three assists as the Aces beat out the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, 104-94, in a fight for the pivotal 2-1 lead in their PLDT Home Telpad PBA Governors’ Cup best-of-five semifinal faceoff at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Tuesday.
“(I’m) just proud of Henry because he came out and battled with pain and all,” said Alaska coach Alex Compton.
The Alaska locals did their part as the Aces now have two cracks at wrapping up the series and sending Compton to the PBA Finals right in his first conference as head coach in the league.
A win Thursday or Saturday advances Alaska to the best-of-five Finals against San Mig Super Coffee or Talk n Text.
Vic Manuel had his own double-double game with 11 points and 10 rebounds while Calvin Abueva, Gabby Espinas, Dondon Hontiveros and Sonny Thoss produced double-digit outputs as Alaska sprang back from its 87-99 defeat in Game Two.
The Aces made a big turnaround from that loss, taking their turn to dominate the Elasto Painters in this game.
Alaska took an early double-digit spread at 29-17 and stayed in control through the final buzzer.
Walker and his teammates showed great poise and composure, beating the E-Painters on their methodical halfcourt attack and even on Rain or Shine’s pet up-tempo game.
The Aces led by 15 at 86-71 on back-to-back baskets by Espinas and kept the E-Painters at bay with Walker checking back in the last six minutes and hitting clutch baskets to preserve his remarkable game.
Playing with pain and all, Walker topped his averages of 20.8 points and 9.1 rebounds a game.
The West Virginia native played mostly from the outside, hitting 10 of 26 field attempts.
He personally finished off the E-Painters with timely hits in the last four minutes. (SB)
The scores:
ALASKA 104 – Walker 26, Abueva 14, Espinas 12, Hontiveros 11, Thoss 11, Manuel 11, Casio 7, Dela Cruz 6, Baguio 4, Jazul 2.
RAIN OR SHINE 94 – Chan 22, Reid 17, Arana 10, Almazan 10, Ibanes 10, Lee 10, Belga 5, Tiu 5, Teng 3, Rodriguez 2, Uyloan 0, Cruz 0.
Quarterscores: 29-23, 53-46, 78-66, 104-94
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