Alaska completes sweet sweep

Alaska had to work truly hard on this one.
Engaged by a gritty Barangay Ginebra five by its toughest stand in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup title series, the Aces needed one big surge in the fourth quarter last night to dispose of the Gin Kings and return to the winner’s circle after three long years.
It took a 20-3 run near the middle of the fourth quarter for Alaska to finally grab control and snuff the fight out of the game Kings, who led for all of the first three periods before becoming the victims of just the eighth 3-0 sweep in the history of the PBA before a record Araneta Coliseum crowd.
Sonny Thoss won the Finals MVP award handed out by the PBA Press Corps after averaging 14 points and 10 rebounds in the series.
But more than those numbers, it was his ability to control Ginebra import Vernon Macklin that made it look like it was an easy series for the Aces.
Robert Dozier gave out a sort of valedictory address after winning the Best Import award over Macklin earlier, shooting 27 points that went with 20 rebounds, seven assists and six shotblocks in another mammoth performance that Ginebra didn’t come close to solving.
Rookie Calvin Abueva scored 11 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter and was as usual, the biggest bundle of energy for Alaska, which won for the first time since the 2010 Fiesta Conference and scored a breakthrough in the post-Tim Cone era.
“We didn’t think that by any means it would come to this,” young Alaska coach Luigi Trillo said of the sweep. “I want to give credit to Ginebra, but they got tired in the end.”
From a 76-all count, the Aces tightened the noose, holding Ginebra to just three points in scooting to a 96-79 lead heading into the final 3:29 that drew mixed reactions from a crowd of 23,436.
Alaska fans were chanting and so were those who came to root for Ginebra, which they tried to buoy up with their familiar chant to no avail, proof of how fatigued the Kings were.
Ginebra’s final score came from the free throw line, and it was the only basket that the Kings could come up with inside the final 6:14.
LA Tenorio won the Best Player of the Conference award over Abueva handily, but even he couldn’t sustain a brilliant effort in the first three periods by going scoreless in the fourth quarter where it truly mattered.
Tenorio finished with 18 points and rookie Chris Ellis added 14.
Macklin, whom coach Alfrancis Chua said was suffering from a thigh injury sustained in the Final Four series with Talk ‘N Text, had just 12 points and 14 rebounds in 42 hard minutes.
“I’m so proud of my team,” Chua told reporters later after giving Trillo a hug inside the press room. “It’s a wonderful ride, but the thing is, I can see that my players were already tired.”
Despite the final count, this was the best game of the series considering that Alaska led by as many as 30 in Game 1 and by as large as 24 in the second game to win by an average margin of 15.5 points.
Dozier, Abueva and Thoss all finished with double-double efforts with Abueva plucking down 10 rebounds and Thoss 14 that went with 13 markers.