Mixers, Meralco in Governors’ Cup semis showdown

San Mig Coffee punched the last ticket to the Final Four Friday night. And the Mixers needed to play extra hard to get it.
Using a solid fourth quarter and a defense that didn’t give way, the Mixers turned back Alaska in their KO match, 83-73, to arrange a semifinal clash with Meralco in the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
The Mixers held the Aces to their conference-low output by challenging the Alaska offense all night as San Mig moved within three more victories to going back to the Finals of this tournament it lost in seven games to Rain or Shine last season.
“We played a solid fourth quarter, that was the key. We were trying to be calm and took our time on both ends,” said San Mig coach Tim Cone after his defensive ploy held down Alaska to 28 percent shooting from the field.
“We made stops down the stretch and made free throws, too,” he added before admitting that the win erased bitter memories of a famous fold-up against defunct Powerade two years ago.
“Because of that famous Powerade loss that we had, whenever we lose that first game, it’s like déjà vu all over again,” continued Cone, who lost the first game, 105-112, and was clearly the pressured squad going into last night’s decider.
Marqus Blakely stood tallest for Cone, shooting 30 points that went with 15 rebounds and night-highs of five blocks and four steals as he typified San Mig’s hard-nosed defensive stand.
San Mig allowed just 12 points in the first period and 18 in the third as it took a 61-53 lead into the fourth before bloating it to as many as 12 with about six minutes left.
The closest that Alaska could come to was within 70-74 with two minutes left after a Cyrus Baguio triple.
But it was also Baguio and another steady Ace in JV Casio who did Alaska in, as both figured in two crucial endgame blunders that helped seal San Mig’s victory.
Casio was also starved to just five points by the switching San Mig defense up high, as the former national team guard made just 1-of-9 three-point attempts and was 0-for-3 from two-point zone.
Wendell McKines paced the Aces with 24, but the hardworking Alaska import chose the wrong night, the wrong game, to suddenly become an atrocious free throw shooter.
Coming into the contest shooting just over 80% from the stripe, McKines missed five straight free throws at one point in the fourth quarter before missing a total of eight for the period. And Alaska, as a team, went 21-for-36 for the night.
“I’m still proud of my boys, proud of them all,” losing coach Luigi Trillo said. “They worked hard, but we just couldn’t nail the shots when we needed to. You can’t win them all.” San Mig battles Meralco in a best-of-five series starting Sunday, while Petron and Rain or Shine clash in the other race-to-three affair beginning Monday night.
Meanwhile, Rain or Shine, which will clash with powerhouse and in-form Petron Blaze in the other half of the Final Four, will play the rest of the playoffs without top point guard Paul Lee.
Lee, last season’s top rookie, has been asked to rest for at least three weeks to enable a tear in his left calf muscle to heal.
This development comes as a big blow to the defending champion Elasto Painters, who will be playing the Boosters in a best-of-five series starting Monday without the man that could best match up with Alex Cabagnot.
That leaves coach Yeng Guiao a choice between Gabe Norwood and Chris Tiu to man the point, with the third and fourth options being TY Tang and Jonathan Uyloan.
Norwood played a lot of the point guard position while in college in the United States and with the Gilas Pilipinas national squad. He can ably do the same for the Painters in this series, but it could take something from him in the way he plays defense.
Rain or Shine won this tournament in seven pulsating games at the expense of San Mig last year with Jamelle Cornley as an import.