MANILA: Alaska coach Alex Compton blurted out a number — 63 — which he said he is most proud of.

And it didn’t even belong to his Aces.

Undefeated heavyweights Alaska and San Miguel Beer slugged it out toe-to-toe on Wednesday night in a game that was as defense-oriented as it could get, and the Aces truly established themselves as a force in the PBA Philippine Cup after a 66-63 victory at the Araneta Coliseum.

“Sixty-three points, I am most proud of that,” Compton opened up. “(Our) 66 points is terrible offense. They (Beermen) shut us down. It was just a special game. But knowing how good their players are, I’m really proud of what we did.

“The effort we showed tonight couldn’t make me happier,” continued the humble Compton. “Our guys are great. This is an absolute character win for us because we just shut down a team that can win championships in the years to come.”

Starting point guard JV Casio drilled in the go-ahead markers in the dying seconds and Calvin Abueva was the man responsible for most of the intangibles for the Aces all game long as Alaska rose to 4-0 while dealing the Beermen their first defeat in four games.

Cyrus Baguio led the Aces with 13 points and the Alaska total was the lowest winning score – ever – for the proud franchise, a winner of the Grand Slam in 1996 whose last championship came in the 2012 Commissioner’s Cup.

Incidentally, Alaska is within another win of matching its finest start in the post-Tim Cone era. The Aces started out 5-0 when they won in 2012 with Robert Dozier as their import.

Casio hit four straight points that ushered the Aces to a 65-63 lead, before Abueva capped off his heroics with something that does not necessarily reflect on the stats sheets — when he helped Dondon Hontiveros play defense to change Chris Lutz shot drastically that the Beermen lost possession.

That play led to the last two of those points by Casio, which came from the stripe after a duty foul by Sol Mercado with 17.9 seconds to go.

Abueva finished with just five points but had a night-high 18 rebounds, seven of them offensive ones.

Arwind Santos shot 14 points to lead the Beermen, who got 13 from Chris Lutz and 10 points and 16 rebounds from June Mar Fajardo, the 6-foot-9 cornerstone who kept Compton up for the last two nights trying to figure out a defensive ploy.

Gary David stepped out of his shell earlier in the night and led Meralco to a swashbuckling 90-75 ripping of sister team NLEX in the first game.

With his minutes limited and his shots not falling in their first three games, David was the old offensive machine for the Bolts, who mowed down the Road Warriors right from the get-go to rise to 3-1 overall.

The loss was the second in four games for NLEX, which came into the game as the prohibitive favorite after chopping hulking Barangay Ginebra down to size last week.

But the Bolts – who were coming off a 41-point loss to Alaska – got the jumpstart they needed from David, who tossed in seven of his 23 points in the first quarter where Meralco raced to double-digit leads.

The Scoring Champion for two years starting from the 2011 Season, David then pumped in another eight in the second and the Meralco defense held NLEX to just 29 first half points for a 23-point halftime lead.

Meralco would later on go to establish leads of as large as 30 points before fending off the Road Warriors.

NLEX crept to within seven points with under three minutes left but it was clear that the Bolts already established their bearings and made the baskets that finished off the Road Warriors.

Jared Dillinger and Mike Cortez also played well for coach Norman Black, who succeeded in steering his Bolts to an impressive bounce back from that embarrassing loss to the Aces last week.

“Tonight, well, we obviously played a lot better because our veterans delivered,” Black said, making special mention of David, Dillinger and Cortez, who combined for a total of 50 points.

So effective was the trio that Meralco didn’t feel the effects of Cliff Hodge’s worst offensive game of the season. The third-year power forward, had just four points and five rebounds.

Asi Taulava paced the Road Warriors with 24 points that went with 12 rebounds, never showing any quit the entire night even after NLEX lagged behind, 69-39, early in the third period.

Mac Cardona and Juneric Beloria added 14 apiece for NLEX.