MANILA: There were no end-game heroics for Purefoods this time.
Alaska simply made sure of that one.
The Aces ran roughshod on the shorthanded Tender Juicy Giants from the second quarter on last night to take an easy 95-80 victory and grab the solo lead in the Philippine Cup eliminations at the Araneta Coliseum.
After a slow start, the Aces held the Giants to just eight second quarter points on the way to erecting leads of as many as 28 on two occasions to rise to 7-2 overall and deal Purefoods a first loss in its last four games.
The Giants, who lost Kerby Raymundo to severe diarrhea earlier in the day, dropped below .500 again with their fifth loss in nine outings.
Purefoods found life difficult as Alaska clamped down hard on James Yap on every opportunity that it got and the MVP two seasons ago struggled to finish with 16 points, none in the breakaway second, and six in the fourth when the outcome was already decided.
“They’re missing key players, and that takes a lot out of your lineup,” Alaska coach Tim Cone said, referring to the Giants who were already without sixth man Peter June Simon and starting point guard Roger Yap.
“We were down early but I told my team to just be patient because we knew we were going to wear them down,” the grand slam-winning coach added. “We put our concentration on giving James ( Yap ) a tough night with Kerby not there.”
With that, Purefoods was out of it early and didn’t get that chance to again come up with miraculous finishes the way it did in its last two wins, when late-game jumpers gave them close victories over Air21 and Talk ‘N Text.
Joe Devance, acquired from Rain or Shine in the pre-season, scored 20 points, Larry Fonacier contributed 16 and three others chipped in with 10 or more.
Former two-time MVP Willie Miller finished with just seven points after Cone found no need to utilize him in the fourth quarter with such a huge lead.
“If I can save Willie’s legs in a game like this, I would,” Cone said matter-of-factly. “First time this conference we had a lead and we held it. It was nice to be able to do that.”
Rookie center Beau Belga also had 16 points, his career-high, while Enrico Villanueva and Topex Robinson scored 13 and 12, respectively, for Purefoods.
While Alaska took a lead it never lost, Red Bull didn’t enjoy such a fortune in the first game after the Barako blew a couple of 19-point bubbles to go down, 83-80, to defending champion Sta. Lucia.
Kelly Williams scored 17 points and had 18 rebounds as the Realtors, who missed Ryan Reyes for the second straight game, finally snapped out of a long stupor to climb to a level 4-4 card.
Williams, the reigning MVP, canned two charities that gave the Realtors an 80-77 lead with 1:27 left before Dennis Espino hit a basket with 49.5 to go that was enough to put the defending champions back on the winning track.
“Everyone stepped up with Ryan (Reyes) out,” said Sta. Lucia coach Boyet Fernandez. “At least we stopped our skid. It was tough losing three straight games.”
Espino finished with 16 points and Paolo Mendoza started out in Reyes’ spot to toss in 14 as the Realtors took some positive energy going into their next match, which would be against Rain or Shine on Friday.
Gabby Espinas led the Barako with 20 points to tie his career-high, while Jeff Chan, the rookie out of Far Eastern, played his finest game with 15 points, including a triple with 37.5 left that put Red Bull within 80-82.
The potential game-winning play blew up right in the Barako’s faces when Celino Cruz, after being forced to the backcourt by Dennis Miranda’s defense, asked for a timeout the team didn’t have for a technical foul.
Espino calmly made the charity with 5.8 ticks remaining, before Cruz launched a triple that was short at the buzzer.
Red Bull played without head coach Yeng Guiao, who is in the United States attending a personal matter. Gee Abanilla did a good job for most of the game, though Red Bull was held to just 32 points in the final two periods after shooting 48 in the first two.
