Chill the bubbly, or better yet, chill the gin.

Alaska moved within another victory of clinching its first title in three years last night after ripping Barangay Ginebra, 104-90, for a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-five series for the PBA Commissioner’s Cup championship.

The Aces have practically frozen the Gin Kings in this series and won a second lopsided game to earn three chances of winning their first title since the 2010 Fiesta Conference and first championship since Tim Cone left the team two seasons ago.

Sonny Thoss tossed in 16 points and Robert Dozier had 15 that went with 20 rebounds and five assists as the Aces again proved to be a big puzzle that the Kings didn’t have an answer to.

It was the fourth win in as many clashes this conference for the Aces against the Kings, and this one could have finally snuffed the fight out of the gallant Ginebra crew, which has lost the first two games by an average of 15.5 points.

There was a different start to this one as Ginebra raced to an 11-4 lead, unlike in Game 1 where Alaska dropped 14 unanswered points to lead all the way and win by 17 points.

But the Aces, playing calm and collected, nibbled away at that deficit and scooted away in the second period, taking the half, 53-37, before leading by as many as 24 points in the third period.

“We had to weather that first quarter storm,” Luigi Trillo, the young Alaska coach, told minutes after the game that hushed a crowd of more than 17,000 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

“We knew they were going to come out with a lot of energy, there’s a lot of pride in that (Ginebra) team,” Trillo said before paying tribute to their defense that shut down several key Ginebra cogs.

Thoss not only scored, he also checked Ginebra import Vernon Macklin, holding the Gins’ workhorse to just eight points coming from just six attempts from the field. In Game 1, Thoss also worked Macklin to just nine attempts and 16 points.

“They’re doing everything right,” Ginebra guard LA Tenorio, the leading candidate for the Best Player of the Conference award, said of his former team. “They are really playing a hell of a defensive series and we need to be able to solve that.” Asked what he thinks Ginebra needs to do to stay alive, Tenorio’s answer would disappoint any Ginebra faithful.

“I don’t know. We’ve done everything we could and yet they keep on coming at us at full speed,” said Tenorio while massaging his head. “They’re just playing great. That’s all I can say.” Calvin Abueva had 15 points like Cyrus Baguio and Dondon Hontiveros, the veteran who rifled in three straight threes late in the fourth that quelled a Ginebra rally.

JV Casio was the sixth player in twin digits for Alaska, which has three chances of winning the 14th title for its franchise with a victory in any of the last three games starting with tomorrow’s Game 3 at the Araneta Coliseum.

Jay-Jay Helterbrand fired 17 points to pace the Kings, 11 of them coming in the fourth period and Tenorio finished with just 16 after shooting 10 in the first quarter, a clear sign, he admitted, that the team is fatigued.

“We will just give it our all on Sunday and see what happens,” Tenorio said.