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By Joel Orellana, Reporter
ALASKA took out San Miguel
Beer’s rhythm early and coasted to a 93-68 win in Game 2 for a 2-0
lead in their best-of-seven semifinal series of TNT-PBA Fiesta
Conference Friday night at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Aces jumped to a 25-8 lead
after the first quarter that proved to be enough to shake their
rivals’ balance and move halfway of reaching the finals of the
tournament.
Rosell Ellis had 17 points, 14
rebounds and 5 assists to lead Alaska’s onslaught as the Beermen
failed to recover after being down early and absorbed their second
straight loss just for the first time since starting the tournament
0-6.
“It’s quite surprising when
you got that kind of win against a quality team like San Miguel.
It’s just one of those nights where everything went right for
us,” said Aces head coach Tim Cone whose team shot a remarkable
50.7 percent (38-of-75) in the game.
“I like the way the guys came
out aggressively and we defended pretty well. But San Miguel is like
that. They’ll have one bad game once in a while but comes back
with six or seven good games,” Cone added.
Reynel Hugnatan chipped in 13
points and 10 boards for Alaska and put up a show in the final
period where he unloaded 10 of his total output and had one
behind-the-back feed to John Ferriols that gave them an 82-49
cushion.
Ferriols had 12 markers while
Willie Miller, who was held to just five points in Game 1, rebounded
with a decent performance, scoring 11 points and dishing out five
feeds.
Galen Young was the only Beermen
up to the challenge with 20 points but shot 7-of-22 from the field.
Enrico Villanueva added 16 but majority came when the game was
already decided.
San Miguel shot 32 percent from
the field and was 10-of-25 from the free throw area.
While the Beermen labored for
their shots, the Aces seemed to have all the luck last night,
cashing on buzzer beaters and one of those was Ellis’ 35-foot
heave to end the first period.
Eddie Laure and Dale Singson had
their shares of Alaska’s terrific shooting in the second half.
Laure almost beat the buzzer with a three-pointer that gave the Aces
a 70-38 entering the fourth quarter.
Singson converted a rare
four-paint play in the final canto that shoved their lead to 70-47.
That was his only field goal in the game.
Scores:
Alaska 93—Ellis 17, Hugnatan
13, Ferriols 12, Miller 11, Laure 9, Belasco 8, Cariaso 6, Thoss 4,
Singson 4, Aban 3, Cortez 2, Bajar 2, Juinio 2.
San Miguel 68—Young 20,
Villanueva 16, Ildefonso 8, Pena 6, Espinas 5, Gonzales 3, Cablay 3,
Racela 3, Tenorio 2, Wilson 2, Adriano 0, Calaguio 0.
Quarters: 25-8, 45-25, 70-38,
93-68.
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