MANILA: Tim Cone has a great case when he said, just a couple of weeks when the 34th PBA season started, that Willie Miller is the best finisher in the league.
Miller hit the shots that made a difference for Alaska last night as the Aces snapped a two-game losing streak after pounding out a 93-84 overtime win over Barangay Ginebra in the Philippine Cup eliminations at the Araneta Coliseum.
The former two-time MVP was also greatly responsible for sending the game into extra time as Alaska, despite how bad Cone said he coached his team, rose to 5-2 and reclaimed a piece of the lead with idle San Miguel.
Miller actually outscored the Gin Kings in the extra five minutes, all of his six points in that stretch proving to be clutch as Ginebra, still without top scorer Mark Caguioa, lost for the third straight time for 2-4 overall.
“I’m shocked that I am sitting here right now,” Cone said while answering questions from reporters.
Cone admitted to giving his Aces a mouthful during the halftime break, or after they allowed the Kings to score 55 points in the first two quarters.
And that worked as the Aces yielded only nine points in the third, 15 in the fourth and five in overtime — all in the first 1:26 — as Alaska got back on the winning track.
Joe De Vance scored 20 points and grabbed a career-high 20 rebounds in an able back-up job to Miller, while LA Tenorio, aside from effectively quarterbacking the Alaska offense, did a great job in scuttling Jay-Jay Helterbrand all night. Though Helterbrand scored 30 points, the former Mythical Team member was held scoreless by Tenorio in overtime.
“We got back to our identity of playing defense,” Cone said. “And the defense that LA played on Jay-Jay I think was one of the keys for our comeback.”
Miller went on to finish with 25 points, eight rebounds and six assists and Cone got double digit scores from three others, including 10 from Sonny Thoss, who blocked an Eric Menk jumper at the end of regulation to seal overtime at 79-all.
In the first game, Coca-Cola won a second straight game in the watch of Kenneth Duremdes by stopping Red Bull dead on its tracks, 97-92, for the Tigers’ first winning streak of the season.
Asi Taulava threw his weight around and finished with 17 points and nine rebounds in leading the Tigers to a 3-4 card and out of the cellar.
Red Bull lost for the first time in four games after not having an answer to Taulava and the other big men of the Tigers. The Barako, after tripping powerhouses Barangay Ginebra, San Miguel and Talk ‘N Text in succession, slumped to a similar 3-4 card.
“I’m very happy with the streak,” said the 1998 MVP Duremdes, who also admitted to still feeling the itch to play, especially during tight situations. “And beating Red Bull was not easy.”
All 11 players that Duremdes used contributed on the offensive end, the product, he said, of the free-wheeling offense he has instilled in the squad and the new-found inspiration his boys have taken to the floor of late.
“We are playing free-wheeling basketball,” Duremdes said.
Nic Belasco had 15 points and nine rebounds and Alex Cabagnot started at the point to finish with 16 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals as the Tigers erased an early 11-point deficit to zoom to leads of as many as 14 and win handily.
