MANILA: It certainly wasn’t pleasing to the eyes, but Alaska simply couldn’t care less.

Shutting down a high-scoring team for the third straight game, the Aces pulled out a 78-71 victory over Barako Bull to climb to solo fourth place in the standings of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

The second-best defensive team in the league, Alaska made the Energy bleed for their points to notch a third straight win, with its 4-3 record now good for solo fourth in the leaderboard after Barangay Ginebra gutted out an 88-78 victory over Meralco later in the night.

“This is how we want it — not run-and-gun, ugly, physical and a halfcourt, defensive type of game,” said Alaska coach Luigi Trillo when someone pointed out the low-scoring nature of the contest.

“(With the win) we just put ourselves in a situation where we can keep on moving.”

Barako Bull came into the game averaging close to 98 points a contest, and import Josh Dollard was also held down to just 26 – 10 points below his average – as the Aces clamped down on the Energy so hard without letup.

Both teams combined for just 56 first half points and their rebounding total for the first two periods was actually bigger than their offensive production, with Alaska collaring 31 boards and the Barako Bull 28.

Rob Dozier scored 18 points and had 15 rebounds for the Aces, who also held powerhouse San Miguel Beer and Air21 to the low-70s in their previous two victories.

San Miguel was the highest-scoring side in the conference with an average of close to 102 points before losing to the Aces last Saturday in Binan, Laguna. Barako Bull was the second-best offensive team before running into Alaska Wednesday night.

Calvin Abueva also awoke from a long slumber and came out as energetic as he could be, shooting nine points and grabbing the same number of rebounds while playing hard defense on anyone assigned to him.

Gabby Espinas shot 14 points and JV Casio was the third Ace in twin digits with 10, capping his night with a fallaway jumper with 52.4 seconds remaining that put the game to bed for Alaska, 72-67.

Barako Bull dropped to 2-5 and saw its hopes of making it past the eliminations fade after the Gin Kings finished off the Bolts with a flurry.

Ginebra, which unveiled a new import in Josh Powell, rose to 3-4 and effectively ousted idle Globalport from further contention. The Batang Pier are winless in seven games and even victories in their last two games won’t be enough to catch the eighth-placed Gin Kings.

The Kings snapped a two-game slide mainly because their locals stepped up as five players after the 16 points of Powell scored in twin digits.

Chris Ellis hit the last six Ginebra points to also finish with 16 with rookie Greg Slaughter contributing 15 and seven rebounds and LA Tenorio shooting 10 that went with six assists.

Powell played his first game just after more than a day of flying in from the United States. Coach Ato Agustin was satisfied with the way he played, citing his new import’s unselfishness as the key to why the locals were able to deliver.

“Before, with Leon (Rodgers), who was a scorer, everyone just stood there when he got the ball,” Agustin explained in Filipino. “But with Josh, the locals know that they can receive a pass anytime because they know that he is not a scorer.”

Powell, a former Los Angeles Laker, actually took just 10 attempts and made six and was 4-of-5 from the free throw line.

Meralco, which is also at 3-4, also paraded a new import in Darnell Jackson, who had 25 points and 18 rebounds.

Gary David scored 18 for the Bolts.