MANILA, 12 January 2008 — Alaska did its part — but that was just half of the job.
The Aces last night regrouped just in time to survive the loss of a 19-point first half lead and pound out a 109-102 decision of Purefoods that kept their flickering hopes of automatically advancing to the Philippine Cup semifinals at the Araneta Coliseum.
“We took care of our business now and put a little pressure on Sta. Lucia,” Alaska coach Tim Cone later said. “But it’s one of those things that you don’t have control over. We can’t control Sta. Lucia’s game.
“We just controlled the things we could control, and that was our game tonight.” Right now, the Aces qualified to the quarterfinals outright and their chances of making it to the Final Four as the No. 2 qualifier rests on an Air21 victory over Sta. Lucia tomorrow night.
That will happen because both the Realtors and the Aces would then have 11-7 records, but Cone is not actually keen on watching tomorrow’s game. In fact, he sounded like he has resigned himself to the quarterfinals at best.
“The last time we needed a team to win for us, was Coke (Coca-Cola) to beat Sta. Lucia two years ago,” Cone explained. “And Sta. Lucia led them (Tigers) by 50 at halftime. They (Tigers) lost that game by 47 points, so we don’t expect much (in game tomorrow).
“They (Express) don’t have an obligation to win that game (for us) on Sunday.” Still, Cone got his players to play at a high level, with Willie Miller shooting 16 of his 31 points in the second period and Reynel Hugnatan 13 of his 22 in the first as Alaska took leads of as many as 37-18.
But the Tender Juicy Giants fought doggedly all night, even taking a 71-69 lead after a Kerby Raymundo turnaround with a shade over four minutes left in the third quarter.
“That just goes to show what character that team (Purefoods) has,” Cone offered. “That’s the reason why they topped the eliminations.
“I told my players that if we were to win this game, it would be because of our good play,” he continued. “Because I knew Purefoods would just not sit out there and give the game to us. We really had to earn it.” Alaska ‘s victory also shut idle Red Bull out of the automatic semifinals race, as the Barako, even if they win over Purefoods on Wednesday and Sta. Lucia loses tomorrow, would lose out in the quotient to Alaska and the Realtors.
Magnolia earned at least a playoff for the last quarterfinal slot earlier after the Beverage Masters steamrolled their way past luckless Welcoat, 96-84.
The Beverage Masters, who topped almost every pre-season poll because of a lineup that could pass as two all-star squads, scooted away early and never gave the Dragons the chance to exit with a little bit of pride.
Magnolia closed out with a 10-8 card, good for fifth spot at the moment and well within the magic number of teams that would advance to the playoffs outright, while the Dragons, in bowing out for the third straight tournament, had a 3-15 card.
For Welcoat, it was its 11th straight loss, the new mark in futility for the last two-and-a-half decades after disbanded Countryfair’s 0-13 record in the 1984 All-Filipino Conference. There has also never been a team that lost more than 10 games in one conference since Ginebra in the 1995 Governors Cup.
Danny Seigle scored 19 points in the first and to finish with a night-high 32 points, leading three others in twin digits as Magnolia, despite the win, still failed to play according to the potential of a team deemed unbeatable at the start.
“We’re still trying to find a groove for most everyone,” coach Siot Tanquingcen told scribes. “We were close to finding it (groove), until Danny (Ildefonso) got injured. And, because of that, we needed to make adjustments again.” Ildefonso sat out a third straight game because of a bone chip in his right elbow. Tanquingcen said that the former two-time MVP had started to practice last week only to aggravate the injury.
