The Aces held off Barangay Ginebra in a tight finish Friday night, getting the big endgame baskets and the big plays from Joe Devance for a 104-101 victory and a 1-0 lead in their PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinal series at the Araneta Coliseum.

And in a best-of-three series like this one, the Aces moved within another victory of wrapping up a third straight playoff series against the crowd-darling Gin Kings dating back to the two conferences last season.

“This is a short sprint,” Alaska coach Tim Cone said after getting a career-high 30 points and 10 rebounds from Devance. “You have to be ready to go and go right away. There’s no margin for error at all.

“It (Game 1 win) doesn’t lock it (this series) up,” Cone added. “But now we have a twice-to-beat advantage and that’s what we basically worked for the entire elimination round, when you aim to finish in the top two.” Alaska actually blew a 14-point third quarter lead and needed a steady finish to draw first blood against the Kings as Devance scored six points in an 8-2 spurt that allowed the Aces to keep their collective heads above water, 101-99.

And after the Kings threatened to within 102-101 after a Mark Caguioa basket with 31.5 left, Devance found a wide open Sonny Thoss underneath for an unmolested lay-up with 9.2 seconds left for what turned out to be the final score.

Yancy De Ocampo missed forging overtime for Ginebra by throwing a three-pointer at the buzzer that hit nothing.

Ginebra played without Eric Menk, who had a recurring leg injury, but the Kings fought and fought hard, never losing hope despite trailing early.

And for a while, it looked like Alaska, like in the elimination round where it seemingly found tough times in finishing off foes in the fourth quarter, was again ready to fold up as Ginebra led by as many as four twice in the final frame.

Ronald Tubid, who paced the Kings with 21 points, hit a triple with 4:39 left to usher Ginebra to a 97-93 advantage and Willy Wilson had a bucket that made it 99-95 before the Aces answered back with the tailend of that spurt.

“Nice to win a game in the fourth quarter this conference,” Cone said. “And it came at the right time. But it certainly wasn’t easy, that’s for sure.” Six players finished with twin digit scores for Cone, with Tony Dela Cruz adding 14, Thoss finishing with 11 and Mark Borboran and LA Tenorio accounting for 11 and 10, respectively.

Caguioa wound up with 18 points for Ginebra, who drew only two points in 39 minutes from former two-time MVP Willie Miller.

Also taking a headstart in the other series was defending champion Derby Ace, which outlasted a hard-fighting Meralco side, 106-97, in double overtime in the first game.

Peter June Simon hit the telling blows for the defending champion Llamados and finished with 35 markers. Reigning MVP James Yap had 27 points before fouling out early in the first overtime.

“What a game,” Jorge Gallent, the rookie Derby Ace coach, said. “My guards just hit the big shots in this game.” Meralco battled back from a 16-point third quarter deficit to force when Gabby Espinas foiled a layup by Simon at the buzzer.

Jonas Villanueva, acquired from San Miguel at the start of the season, also stood out in the stretch for the Llamadis, highlighting an 18-point night with a coast-to-coast drive with four minutes left for a 95-92 lead.

Villanueva also hit the game-tying layup after an Asi Taulava turnover with 21.8 seconds left that for a second extension at 91, which the B-Boys could have prevented had Mac Cardona buried a triple at the buzzer.

Cardona finished with 30 points, nine rebounds and five assists but had 11 turnovers, the highest by anyone this season. He came into the game averaging a league-worst 4.8 boo-boos an outing.