Alaska tears Ginebra apart 87-69

Alaska, under a new coach and with a piece that fits the Aces perfectly well, is fast establishing a new identity in the post-Tim Cone era.
Barangay Ginebra, on the other hand, equipped with its old personnel and one of the best point guards in the PBA, is far from playing with its usual personality.
The Aces tore the Gin Kings apart on Sunday night, 87-69, for their fourth straight Philippine Cup win with rookie Calvin Abueva leading the way before a disappointed pro-Ginebra gallery at the Araneta Coliseum.
Abueva fired 19 points and had nine rebounds and JV Casio shot 16 that went with four assists as the Aces broke Ginebra’s back with a sustained second half brilliance to rise to 4-2 overall and slap a fourth straight loss on the Kings.
“Calvin is a game changer, no doubt about that,” Alaska coach Luigi Trillo told reporters as the Aces continued to breathe down the necks of league-leading, defending champion Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters.
“It’s nice to get four (wins)-in-a-row,” Trillo added. “But you can’t be satisfied.” Back-to-back triples by Cyrus Baguio and JV Casio and a layup by RJ Jazul ushered the Aces to an 81-61 lead heading into the final 5:11 as a crowd of more than 13,000 made up mostly of Ginebra diehards started trooping to the exits.
Mark Caguioa, the reigning MVP, was held down to just 12 points and LA Tenorio finished with just 10 in his first game against his former team.
Dylan Ababou led the Kings with 14 points.
Ginebra dug itself a huge hole by scoring just 30 points in the middle two periods as the other heavy offensive contributors like Jay-Jay Helterbrand and Kerby Raymundo struggled in the face of Alaska swarming defense.
Meanwhile, San Mig Coffee snapped out of a two-game slump in a controversial way earlier in the night after Rafi Reavis slapped the ball off the rim that sealed a 92-91 victory over Barako Bull.
Enrico Villanueva put up the potential game-winning shot for the Energy and Reavis swatted it away from the cylinder while the ball was still bouncing.
No goal-tending violation was called by game officials, with the defensive move a perfectly legal one since the PBA had started adopting international Fiba rules since the 2006 season.
But coach Junel Baculi of the Energy is claiming that his squad was robbed of a win, although commissioner Chito Salud had already shut down all protestations of Barako Bull staff after the game.
“Anybody can touch it (ball) in or out,” Salud said. “Once it (ball) hits the rim, anybody can touch it, that’s a legal play. You can swipe it out, you can swipe it in, that’s the rule. Is that (Reavis play) reviewable? No.” “My opinion, and this is my opinion, is that it was counted. We were robbed of a win,” Baculi said. “My interpretation is that we don’t follow Fiba rules. In the Fiba, it’s five fouls not six, and 10 minutes not 12.
“What kind of Fiba rules did we adopt? There are a lot of players who can do that, but they don’t do that,” continued Baculi.