MANILA, 18 June 2003 — This is one win Alaska couldn’t take much comfort from.
The Aces beat the Sta. Lucia Realty crew playing without injured Kenneth Duremdes 75-66 but still fall short of semifinal seat in the 2003 Samsung PBA All-Filipino Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
The victory enabled Alaska to match Sta. Lucia’s 2-1 record in the quarterfinals, but not enough to give the Aces an automatic semis berth from Group A as they failed to get the necessary winning margin over the Realtors.
Alaska came into the game needing to win by no less than 18 to gain a better quotient than the Realtors. For a while, it seemed as if the Aces were on their way to winning by at least that, only to go eerily silent in the stretch.
Two hours later, San Miguel unexpectedly gave Alaska a free trip to the semis.
Sta. Lucia seemed on the verge of being relegated to the knockout matches after staring at a 56-75 deficit, 5:35 remaining in the game.
But the Aces failed to score from there as the Realtors, led by Marlou Aquino, went on a 10-0 wind-up.
Duremdes, who scored a total 82 points in Sta. Lucia’s first two games before suffering a suspected tear in his left calf muscle last Wednesday, showed up in civilian clothes with crutches. His presence, especially his outside shooting touch, was sorely missed.
This clearly showed when surprise starter Chris Tan failed to fill up the void, along with relievers Gerard Francisco and Francis Adriano.
Alaska, meanwhile, had plenty in its arsenal to lead the charge and this resulted in the Aces leading for majority of the way.
Mike Cortez and John Arigo topped the scoring for the Aces with 16 points apiece. Ali Peek added 10 points to go with 8 rebounds. Don Allado, who contained Dennis Espino, had 9 points and 12 rebounds.
In the second game, the San Miguel Beermen unexpectedly beat the FedEx Express, 96-87.
The Beermen lost their first two quarterfinal games rendering their game against the FedEx Express a no-bearing match for them. Surprisingly, they played with more intensity than the Express which stood to gain at least a tie for a semifinal berth had they won.
Nic Belasco scored a career-high 29 points on 6 of 8 shooting from the three-point range. He also ripped down 10 rebounds to easily win Player of the Game honors. It was actually a case of the Express losing the game rather than the Beermen winning it.
The Express shot a woeful 33 points in the first half trailing by 18 points, 51-33. The Beermen got their biggest lead of 30 points, 81-51, after Boybits Victoria drained a 3-pointer with 5 seconds to go in the third period.
