SATURDAY
1st game
Alaska caught fire early and played with relentless defense against the high-scoring Talk 'N Text squad to post an easy 113-86 win Saturday night in the 2008-09 KFC-PBA Philippine Cup at The Arena in San Juan.
Aces center Sonny Thoss waxed hot early while the Tropang Texters struggled with their shots as Alaska notched its 700 th win in franchise history, joining San Miguel Beer and Barangay Ginebra in the exclusive list.
"It's a little bit shocking," said Aces mentor Tim Cone of their blowout win against the team being considered as one of the teams to beat in the tournament.
"But I'm very proud of the guys especially coming off a tough loss," Cone added.
Alaska now has a firm hold of the top spot with 9-3 slate and is now a couple of wins away of claiming one of the two automatic semifinal berths.
Joe Devance had 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Aces but it was Thoss' 13 first quarter outburst that helped the team to break away from the anticipated close match between the league's two heavyweights.
Trailing 12-13 with five minutes left in the opening period, the Aces unloaded a mind-boggling 26-0 burst that took the balance out of the Tropang Texters as Alaska erected a 38-12 cushion.
Talk 'N Text went 0-of-11 from the field, 0-of-2 from the 15-foot line and committed two turnovers when Alaska made that decisive run.
The 26-0 blast by the wards of coach Tim Cone was the second all-time in record books behind the 32-0 run of Ginebra in the fourth quarter against Shell on May 14, 1991 in Game 5 of the First Conference Finals.
"I saw it many times in my career. Everything goes right for us and everything goes wrong with them," said Cone, who had five players in double figures in scoring.
"It was one of those nights. I've experience that as a coach on the other end it is always nice to be at this end, the winning end of it."
Defense also played a key role in Alaska's victory as they held the league's leading scorer Mark Cardona to just seven points in the contest.
Cardona entered the game averaging 37 points per game but he was never a factor in the game as he shot 2-of-10 from the field.
"Tony (dela Cruz) and Jeff (Cariaso) did a tremendous job on Cardona. He was our target in this game and I thought we did a great job on him," said Cone, whose wards came from an 88-92 loss to the upstart Rain or Shine.
The Aces shot 64 percent in the first half, converting 27 of their 42 attempts to build a 64-31 cushion going to the break.
And nothing worked right for TNT coach Chot Reyes in the second half and he decided to pull out his starters in the final period of the game.
Rookie recorded a career-high 16 points for the Tropang Texters who slid in the team standings with 5-6 mark.
Ginebra 93 Sta. Lucia 81
In the second game, Ginebra leaned on the game-long brilliance of Sunday Salvacion to beat defending champion Sta. Lucia Realty, 93-81, for its second straight win to improve their mark to 5-6.
Salvacion hit a game-high 22 points and was responsible for Ginebra's early breakaway Jayjay Helterbrand, Paul Artadi and Ronald Tubid to erect a 56-39 cushion at the half.
The Realtors had a pair of runs in the second half but the Kings always had an answer to prevent SLR of extending its winning run to four games.
Paul Artadi chipped in 18 points and he was responsible for the ejection of Paolo Mendoza in the game. Artadi drew an offensive foul on the veteran guard and did not like the call and threw the ball on the face of the Kings guard.
Mendoza was called for a flagrant foul 2 and was automatically thrown out in the game, his second this tournament.
Dennis Espino had 19 points for Sta. Lucia, which still played minus starting guard Ryan Reyes due to a back injury. Dennis Miranda added 10 while Joseph Yeo was limited to just nine markers after scoring a career-high 38 points in the team's 100-95 win over the Beermen.
as of 11/23/2008 12:40 AM
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