Two of his starters — LA Tenorio and Sonny Thoss — were emotionally drained from the historic game Saturday night that pitted the Kobe Bryant-led NBA stars against the PBA Selection the two were members of.
Second, Cyrus Baguio had to miss his second straight game because of a knee injury he suffered during practice last Thursday.
Cone and the Aces were blessed enough that their import delivered when it mattered.
Jason Forte poured in a career-high 36 points and collected 10 of his 16 rebounds at the offensive end, pulling Alaska out from the jaws of a second straight defeat and lifting the Aces to a crucial 88-81 win over Petron in the semifinals of the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
One of only two imports still around since the start of the tournament, Forte pulled off a performance that came at a time when Thoss and Tenorio struggled 24 hours after confronting Bryant, Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Chris Paul, Derrick Fisher and three other NBA players in the first leg of the two-game exhibition series.
“We were a tired team today,” said Cone. “Our two stars (Tenorio and Thoss) were tired from last night (Saturday). It’s an emotional high to play that game, and we’re missing Cyrus. It really was a tough game for us.” Worse, Alaska found it hard to create a flow, trailing by as many as 53-41 in the third quarter before the Aces discovered that they can still pull this one through with the aid of three role players.
Bonbon Custodio, Tony De La Cruz and Brandon Cablay joined forces to pull Alaska back into the contest. The trio unloaded a 12-0 run to tie the game at 53, and the Aces then outlasted the Boosters late in the contest for their sixth win in 10 games to keep their chances of qualifying into the Finals alive.
“People stepped up in the places of the stars, and that’s what a team is all about,” Cone said.
Custodio scored 11 points – his conference best — and pulled down six rebounds, De La Cruz collected 10 points and seven boards, while Cablay added nine points for Alaska, which notched the win two days after absorbing a 103-85 defeat to Talk ‘N Text.
Petron, on the other hand, also got little contribution from Arwind Santos, another player who saw action against the NBA stars. Santos, the leading candidate for the Best Player of the Conference award, only had six points on 3-of-12 shooting while having eight rebounds.
Anthony Grundy had 22 points and Rabeh Al-Hussaini 16 for Petron, which appeared to have full control of the contest before Custodio and Cablay sparked the big third-quarter run.
“We have three more games, and we want to win them all,” said Forte.
Later in the night, Ginebra denied sister-team B-Meg of a second straight win in the semi-finals, cruising to a 99-79 victory and snatching solo second spot with its sixth win in nine games.
The Kings, scheduled to play three consecutive games this week, more than doubled the Llamados’ output in the second quarter, 31-14, in setting up the victory, dealing B-Meg its fifth loss in 10 outings.
Mark Caguioa scored 16 points in that telling second-quarter blast, and finished with 33, his highest output in three years and his most against the B-Meg franchise. Import Donald Sloan nearly had a triple-double performance with 26 points, 13 rebounds, and nine assists.
“It doesn’t matter whether by how big the margin is. The important thing is that we won,” said Jong Uichico, coach of Ginebra. “Mahirap na kalaban ang B-Meg, and at this stage, one loss could pull you down in the standings.” Ginebra will now have to brace itself for a rough schedule starting off with Petron on Wednesday, Alaska on Friday and Talk ‘N Text on Sunday.
James Yap scattered 19 points, but only had six in the second half.
Myron Allen added 17 and Marc Pingris 13 for the Llamados, who obviously missed the scoring skill of PJ Simon. Simon, who had 17 points including the winning basket in B-Meg’s come-from-behind 99-98 victory against Rain or Shine last Friday, was held to only four points on an atrocious 1-of-7 shooting.
