San Mig, Alaska dazzle in PBA Philippine Cup

San Mig Coffee and Alaska leveled their respectively PBA Philippine Cup Final Four series against separate foes last night, with the Mixers and the Aces pounding out unexpected Game 2 routs.
James Yap bounced back from a lethargic series-opening effort with 34 points built around seven triples, a performance that came after some soul-searching that keyed a 106-82 win over Rain or Shine at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
And after the smoke of that bombarding cleared, the Aces, who lost their series-opener by a hair also on Wednesday, broke away in the second half to deal the defending champion Tropang Texters a thorough bashing, 100-88.
Both the Mixers and the Aces came into their respective Game 2s as the clear underdogs but played like they were the favorites with San Mig dealing the Elasto Painters their worst loss in the watch of the fiery Yeng Guiao.
Yap had the biggest hand in the win as he posted his highest scoring game in close to two years, when he scored 36 points in a losing cause against Talk ‘N Text in the semifinals of this same tournament.
“I saw the Game 1 tape at home Wednesday night and asked myself why I made the game hard on myself,” the 6-foot-2 streak shooter told reporters. “After seeing that, I told myself: ‘I can still shoot from the outside, and I will try to do it in Game 2.
“And it worked, luckily for me.” Yap, though, wasn’t alone in beating the Painters black and blue, as Mark Barroca and Joe Devance each scored 17 points, with Peter June Simon shooting 13 to complete an offensive awakening for the stars of the Mixers. In the 91-83 Game loss, Yap was held down to just 11 points on three connections from the field. Simon, too, was woeful, with just 12.
Guiao, though, took the loss with a grain of salt and didn’t sound at all panicked in the way they went down in this one.
“(The big losing margin) was a result of a psychological breakdown on our part,” Guiao, who was thrown out late in the third quarter, said. “We just got frustrated with the calls that didn’t go our way.
“We felt that they (game officials) were allowing too much contact against us, while we couldn’t defend with the same amount of contact,” he said. “That’s how it all started. We lost our focus from there.” Rain or Shine, which looked to have complete command with an 11-point lead with under 40 seconds left in the first period, couldn’t hold it together in the final two quarters and lost horribly.
San Mig scored 68 second half points, the most by any team in any half the entire season.
Meanwhile, JV Casio scattered 22 points and Calvin Abueva, the Aces’ do-it-all rookie, had 20 that went with 14 rebounds as Alaska showed that its elimination round conquest of the Tropang Texters was no fluke.
In fact, Alaska equaled its Game 1 total with still 3:22 left in the third quarter after a Dondon Hontiveros triple gave the Aces a 65-61 lead. The Texters would never lead after that.
“I felt Talk ‘N Text imposed their will on us in the first half,” Alaska coach Luigi Trillo, calling the shots in the playoffs for the first time in his young career, said. “In the second half, it was more to our tempo, more grind-it-out, more defense.” Cyrus Baguio added 18 and Sonny Thoss hit 13 before fouling out for the Aces.
Jared Dillinger had 26 points to lead the Texters.