MANILA: Alaska won out in an endgame filled with great plays and woeful miscues on Tuesday night and rode its luck all the way to the top of the PBA Philippine Cup eliminations.

With the Aces and Star committing blunders that were very uncharacteristic in the crunch, Alaska managed to do just a little better to pound out a 107-102 victory at the Araneta Coliseum to give idle San Miguel Beer company again at the top of the heap.

“What a game,” Alaska coach Alex Compton blurted out, just right after giving out a big exhale for the entire press room to hear. “They (Hotshots) did a great job in coming back.”

Alaska was in control for most of the night, leading largest by 11 and then fending off all of the Hotshots’ comeback bids in the second half.

JV Casio hit 14 of his team-high 24 points in the third period but, like several other stars from both sides, had a crucial traveling violation that allowed the Hotshots to stay alive in the endgame.

Alaska missed three free throws inside the final 16.5 seconds, which could have put the Hotshots away, but the Aces also caught a break when James Yap, the former two-time MVP and one of the best finishers in the league, missed two point blank attempts in one possession.

Those misses came when the score stood at 103-100 for the Aces, and they came after Casio had committed that infraction.

Yap’s attempts didn’t even come close to going in, but the Hotshots’ chances didn’t die right there, as Vic Manuel, a reliable free throw shooter, muffed two charities off a duty foul by Yap, which gave Alex Mallari the chance to make a coast-to-coast reverse layup for 103-102 with 10.3 left.

Cyrus Baguio, with Manuel atoning for those free throw misses with a brilliant feed inside, then made a layup and was fouled by Marc Pingris for 105-102.

But even Baguio, with 7.4 ticks left and the chance to again seal it for Alaska, bungled the freebie and gave the Hotshots one final chance to tie.

Coming off a timeout, the play was for Yap to take the inbounds pass, only for the usually cool gunslinger to lose possession to Dondon Hontiveros, who fed a streaking Baguio for the final score.

Compton was a total loss for words after the win, which sent the Hotshots to their third straight setback for a 2-5 card and deeper in the bottom half of the standings.

The Alaska coach didn’t really say it, but he knew that luck played a huge part in their win.

“They’re coming around (to new coach Jason Webb’s system). They’re getting it,” Compton said of the Hotshots. “I tell you, there will be a number of teams who won’t like playing them in the playoffs.”

Manuel finished with 17 points and nine rebounds, Calvin Abuena had 13 points and eight boards despite not being in the latter half of the fourth period because of Manuel’s great play.

Yap still went on to lead all Star shooters with 20. He missed his last four shots, including consecutive triple tries with the score at 101-97.

Justin Melton had 18 points and Pingris finished with 17.

NLEX also won a second straight game earlier after nipping sister team Meralco, 93-91.

The Road Warriors got 22 points and 21 rebounds from ageless man-mountain Asi Taulava, rising to 4-2.

But it wasn’t exactly the winning streak that got coach Boyet Fernandez excited, but on who his Road Warriors had conquered in their last two assignments.

“We’re happy we got this – two straight against sister teams,” Fernandez said. “Hopefully, we can erase that ‘little brother’ name for us.”

The Road Warriors were coming off a narrow victory over Talk ‘N Text last week.