MANILA, 4 May 2006 — Asi Taulava showed fine form in the PBA All-Star Game last week.
He also held his own against Dennis Rodman and a number of other big, talented Americans in an exhibition game won by the Philippines on Monday.
After two memorable performances in a span of three days, Taulava had a night to forget.
Alaska held the Talk ‘N Text man-mountain scoreless last night and pounded out a 92-89 victory over the Phone Pals as the Aces climbed into a tie for fourth spot in the classification phase of the Philippine Cup.
Coach Tim Cone threw a blanket defense on the 6-foot-10 slotman all game and reaped the fruits as Alaska improved to 5-6 with the win while snapping the Phone Pals’ winning run at three games at the Araneta Coliseum.
Mike Cortez scattered 18 points and handed out 11 assists, winning his personal duel with Talk ‘N Text spitfire Jimmy Alapag, who couldn’t help the Phone Pals enough from dropping to 5-6 overall, tied with the Aces and idle Red Bull. “I thought we played a real solid game tonight,” Cone said later. “It was a total team effort on both ends. We played Asi (Taulava) well and frustrated him totally.
“Obviously, holding him scoreless was one of the keys to the win.”
Taulava, who scored 30 points in the All-Star Game and tossed in 11 in the exhibition match against a team of former NBA Greats, never got into the groove. He did pull down 18 rebounds.
Alapag carried the fight for the Phone Pals, winding up with 21 points and 11 assists.
The Phone Pals actually made the finish close, almost overhauling a 90-84 deficit with 14.6 seconds left after a three-pointer by Alapag and a wide-open layup by Willie Miller with 2.9 left for 89-90.
But Jeffrey Cariaso, sent to the line by a duty foul by Miller, canned both free throws with 2.1 left before Harvey Carey missed a desperation triple try on the other end that doomed the Phone Pals.
While Alapag and Cortez engaged in a duel to remember, Jimwell Torion, plucked out of retirement by Sta. Lucia, was the small man that shone in the first game of the night won by the Realtors over Coca-Cola, 99-95.
The 5-foot-8 point guard came off the bench in the second half and went on to score 11 points and figure in the crucial plays in the stretch that resulted in the Realtors’ third win in 11 outings overall.
Torion is being broken in gently by coach Alfrancis Chua, who took a chance on the notoriously uncontrollable guard after being released unconditionally by Red Bull a few days before the opening of the tournament.
Marlou Aquino also delivered for the Realtors, shooting 16 points on 8-of-18 shooting, grabbing six rebounds and swatting away two Coca-Cola shots to achieve a career milestone very few but elite players before him have done.
The 6-foot-9 Aquino now has 901 career shotblocks, becoming only the sixth player in league history to have more than 900 in a career. Aquino joined the likes of Benjie Paras, Abet Guidaben, Jerry Codinera, Philip Cezar and Ramon Fernandez as the only players ever to do so.
Chua has more or less given up hope on making it to the top five of the standings and will try to make the first round of the playoffs via the backdoor. Tournament format calls for the top five teams to advance directly into the quarterfinals with the bottom four teams to play a single-round phase where they will carry their records over.
