MANILA, 23 June 2007 — Tim Cone has been here before, and this time, he swears he knows how to deal with it.
“I refuse to smell it, there will be no more smelling from now on,” Cone said, moments after a lopsided 98-63 demolition of San Miguel Beer that gave his Aces a commanding 2-0 lead in their PBA Fiesta Cup semifinal series at the Araneta Coliseum last night.
“I’ll just eat it if it’s on the table already,” he said. “Otherwise, we will continue working.”
Cone is playing it safe, the memories of blowing a 3-1 lead over Purefoods in the Philippine Cup semifinals last year still fresh in his mind.
“Besides, we have so much respect for that organization (San Miguel),” the outspoken American mentor added. “It was just one of those nights, I guess. And fortunately for us, we were on top of this particular night.”
Talk ‘N Text, meanwhile, evened its series with defending champion Red Bull at 1-1 after coming from behind for a 107-103 victory in the other game. Mac Cardona scored 13 points in the fourth period and finished with a career-high 34, while JJ sullinger added 25 in the highly-physical contest that had tempers from both campers almost getting out of control.
Cardona, who reset his career-high for the second time in the last three games, suffered a cut above the left eye after a wayward James Penny forearm in the closing minutes. Harvey Carey shot 17 points and Yancy de Ocampo added 14.
“This is nothing, I will continue to play,” Cardona said in Filipino after the win, which the Phone Pals fashioned out by scoring 38 points in the fourth period. “They’d have to kill me on the court to stop me from playing.”
Penny led the Bulls with 30, 12 coming in the first period. He also had 20 rebounds and seven blocks.
“I think we came ready to play tonight, unlike in Game 1 when we showed up a little fatigued,” Talk ‘N Text coach Derrick Pumaren said, referring to a 107-101 loss in the series opener which came just two days after playing the full three games against Air21 in the quarterfinals.
Alaska, the dynasty of the 1990s, moved within two more victories of clinching its first title series appearance in nearly five years, when the Aces lost also to Purefoods in the 2002 Governors Cup Finals.
But history is on the side of the Aces, with 23 of the 28 teams that took 2-0 leads in a best-of-seven series going on to win, though two of those teams that lost, counting the one in 2002, were Alaska squads.
Victory last night came early and easy after the Aces held the Beermen to just eight first quarter points, 25 in the first half and 38 for the three quarters to coast to the win and gain a huge psychological edge the rest of the series.
It was the biggest Alaska win in terms of point difference since a 102-72 victory over Barangay Ginebra in the Fiesta Conference two years ago.
Also, those eight San Miguel points in the first period also matched an SMB output for the fewest in a quarter when the Beermen lost to Coca-Cola last March 17.
The Beermen’s halftime score tied the second-lowest in the tournament and it was just two better than the 23 which the Sta. Lucia Realtors scored in a 78-61 loss to the Beermen last April 21.
Things worked so well for the Aces last night that even Rosell Ellis hit a three-pointer, center Reynel Hugnatan flicked a behind-the-back pass to finish a break and Dale Singson completed a rare four-point play.
The win was the complete reverse of how the Aces pounded out a 100-99 Game 1 win, when Alaska needed a Danny Ildefonso miss at the buzzer to prevail. Alaska also went scoreless in the final 1:44 of that game but still came out on top.
The hardworking Ellis went on to finish with 17 points and 14 rebounds in just 32 minutes. The first six Alaska scorers actually outscored the entire San Miguel squad for the game with Hugnatan adding 13, John Ferriols 12, Willie Miller 11, Eddie Laure nine and Nic Belasco eight.
Galen Young led the Beermen with 20 points and Enrico Villanueva was the only other player in twin digits for San Miguel with 16.
“I have no excuses, we were totally outplayed,” said San Miguel coach Siot Tanquingcen. “But we’re not ready to fold up.”
