MANILA, 27 November 2006 — Tim Cone described it as his Alaska squad’s finest game in the PBA Philippine Cup.
After taking full control over Red Bull all game long last night, the Alaska mentor surely knows what he’s talking about.
The Aces came out with all guns firing, building commanding leads early before holding off the Barako for a 105-94 victory, their third straight in the eliminations that put Alaska well within the magic circle of teams that would advance to the playoffs outright.
“Yeah, this game could be our best for the conference only because Red Bull is such a tough team,” Cone said. “We were also a tough team tonight, and beating a team like that makes this win even more special.”
Tony dela Cruz scored 18 points, the final eight coming in the payoff frame as Alaska withstood the last of a series of Red Bull rallies to also win for the fourth time in its last five outings and improve to 5-7 overall.
For Red Bull, the loss snapped a two-game winning streak and it took the Barako out of a tie for second spot with idle Barangay Ginebra with their 8-5 card to fall a full two games off the pace being set by Sta. Lucia.
Willie Miller also came up with a worthy performance, and John Ferriols was special with 17 points and 11 boards, his nine markers in the opening quarter actually jumpstarting the Alaska offense to several double digit leads.
“You don’t see much of his name in the papers,” Cone said of Ferriols. “But John has just stepped up for us and is actually making up for the absence of two players (Reynel Hugnatan, who is injured, and Don Allado, who was traded to Talk ‘N Text).” Ferriols nailed his final two points with 9:08 left, boosting the Aces to an 86-70 lead, before the Alaska defense held off a searing Red Bull charge that had the Barako chopping that 18-point deficit to just six points.
After missing two free throws at the height of the Red Bull fightback, Miller hit a running jumper off the glass, and Dela Cruz re-established a double-digit Alaska lead by canning a wide open jumper for 94-84 that practically broke the Barako’s collective backs.
Sophomore swingman Larry Fonacier led Red Bull with 18 points, but had only five in the final two quarters, while Mick Pennisi contributed 15 off the bench, including three triples in the fourth to bring Red Bull dangerously close.
There were three other players who scored 14 or more for Alaska, but Cone also made special mention of old hand Poch Juinio and rookie Aaron Aban, who combined for seven markers, for the relief jobs that they came up with.
Talk ‘N Text, meanwhile, broke free of the Coca-Cola Tigers’ claws in the second half to post an impressive 100-86 decision in the second game.
Ren-Ren Ritualo, after being held to just three points against Alaska on Friday, scored 15 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter as five others contributed 10 or better that keyed the Phone Pals’ seventh win against six losses.
Coke lost for a tournament-high sixth straight time and is now at 3-10, in prime danger of earning the only pink slip that will be given out in this long elimination round.
“I’m really happy with the way we bounced back tonight,” coach Derrick Pumaren said. “We played a lot better in the second half. In the first two periods, I think we played with a lot of hangover from our last game, which we lost.”
For a while, the Tigers looked like they were primed for an upset, closing out the first period on top by two and the half three points ahead behind rookie Joseph Yeo’s 10 second quarter points.
