SATURDAY UPDATE!
Alaska grabbed the solo top spot with a masterful 91-85 conquest of San Miguel Beer Saturday night in the 2008-09 KFC-PBA Philippine Cup at the Cuneta Astrodome.
The Aces came up with crucial defensive stops in the final minutes to hang on for their fourth straight victory and dislodge the Beermen for the No. 1 spot with 8-2 win-loss mark.
"It's always a thrilling feeling when you beat a quality team like San Miguel Beer and the guys did a wonderful job on the defensive end," said Alaska head coach Tim Cone who drew 20 points from Willie Miller.
"All the five guys on the court played alert defense and that's what we need to beat a quality team like San Migue. And tonight, we got that," Cone added.
LA Tenorio added 18 points and eight assists for Alaska while Joe Devance had 15 including a crucial putback that somehow doused the late-game run of San Miguel, which still occupies the No. 2 spot with 7-3 mark.
Alaska was sitting on an 84-72 advantage when the Beermen unloaded a 10-0 run anchored by rookie Bonbon Custodio to threaten at 82-84 with 1:19 remaining.
Devance put an end to the scoring drought as he followed up Miller's short stab and Tony dela Cruz and Tenorio each added a free throw to make it 88-82, 34.5 ticks left.
Dondon Hontiveros tried to rally his team back with a triple, 85-88, but Alaska sealed the win with three more free throws.
Custodio had a career-high 20 points for SMB while Hontiveros chipped in 16.
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First Game
In the first game, Air21 rode on the huge games of Arwin Santos, Gary David and Ranidel de Ocampo to wallop the reeling Coca-Cola squad, 111-101 for its second straight win and improve to 5-5.
Santos fired a personal conference-high 26 points, highlighted by six triples, while David unloaded 10 of his 23 markers in the final canto where the Express silenced the Tigers' attempt to get back in the game.
De Ocampo, who along with Santos is included in the 14-man RP 5 roster of coach Yeng Guiao, contributed 17 points, 13 rebounds and five assists in an all-around effort for the former St. Francis of Assisi standout.
"Every time na nasa zone ang opensa nila Arwind, Gary and Ranidel, 'yung level of firepower namin mahirap defenseman," said Air21 head coach Bo Perasol who also drew 11 points each from JR Quinahan and Doug Kramer.
"I commended coach Kenneth (Duremdes) for trying hard and I think's he's doing well," Perasol added.
The Express mentor also praised his players on playing defense especially against the frontline of Coke
"We had tired out Asi (Taulava) and some of their big men," he said.
Alex Cabagnot paced Coke with 19 points and a conference-high 11 assists. Taulava also grabbed a conference's best 25 rebounds but he was limited to just nine points on 4-of-16 shooting from the floor and was 1-of-8 in the free throw area.
Air21 led by as much as 21 points, 50-29 with 5:47 left in the second period and was never seriously threatened except for the Tigers' mild run in the fourth quarter.
After David hit a jumper to make it 88-75, Mark Macapagal buried back-to-back three-pointers to cut the lead to 81-88. But that was the closest Coke could get as Santos, David and de Ocampo joined forces in one telling run.
The Express used a 19-6 burst that put the lead back to 20 points, 107-87, under three minutes left in the game.
Macapagal added 17 markers for Coke, which absorbed its third straight loss to slide down at the cellar with 3-7 mark. The Tigers are now 2-4 under interim coach Kenneth Duremdes.
Mark Telan chipped in 16 points while Nic Belasco had 15 for Coke, which is still missing the services of John Arigo due to an injury.
Meanwhile, the PBA is mourning after the death of the league's former legal counsel Atty. Butch Cleofe because of a heart attack Saturday morning.
Cleofe served as the legal counsel for former PBA commissioners Atty. Rudy Salud and Jun Bernardino from 1988 to 2002. He was 58.
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