If there was anything wrong with what Purefoods did in utterly destroying Alaska on Friday night was what coach Tim Cone perceived as the motivational tool he gave the Aces.

After scoring six straight points to open Game 1 of their best-of-three quarterfinal series in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup with the Aces, the Star Hotshots opened up leads of as large as 36 points on the way to a 120-86 victory at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

Cone then entered the press room looking worried, quite uncharacteristic for someone who had just blown the enemy off the floor.

“It looked like it was easy in the end, but there was a lot of early hard work,” Cone said in opening up. “The reason why we had so much focus that we had so much respect for Alaska.

“We kept our foot on the pedal because it is out of respect for Alaska,” Cone added, before saying what he feared. “The bounce back ability is very high for them. They will use this game as motivation for the next one.

“I didn’t want to give that much motivation for Alaska.”

Purefoods held the Aces to a paltry seven points in the first quarter, had a 25-point lead at the half and was inexorably ahead by 27 after three that the Aces, possibly for the first time in the season, lost all appetite of trying to come back.

“We’ve seen that team (in the Philippine Cup Finals against San Miguel Beer) come back from 20-plus-point deficits,” Cone went on.

Import Denzel Bowles scored 20 points and James Yap added 18 and the good thing about the win was that Cone was able to rest his big guns, with the started that played longest having been Marc Pingris, for 27 minutes.

There were four more players in twin digits for the Hotshots, who won this tournament as San Mig Coffee last season.

Damion James fired 21 points to lead the Aces, whose coach, Alex Compton, saw the futility of their effort as early as the third quarter and also started resting his stars.

Game 2 of this series is slated Sunday afternoon and like the Hotshots, the Meralco Bolts will also go for the clincher against sister team NLEX after ripping the Road Warriors, 97-82, in the other game.

Mark Macapagal came off the bench to drop five triples on the Road Warriors as the Bolts led from start to finish with Meralco enjoying leads of as big as 23 points.

The only five-time winner of the Three-Point Shootout, Macapagal even had a four-point play late in the third period, which came off Mac Cardona and pegged the score at 61-45.

NLEX, which won five straight games in the elimination round but has now lost its last two, came within six points once but the Bolts broke away just as quick and put the Road Warriors away early in the fourth.

“We picked Game 1 to play one of our best games,” Meralco coach Norman Black said.

“It makes life a lot easier if we can make our outside shots,” Black continued. “And it was a much better team effort from us, especially as far as sharing the ball is concerned.”

Josh Davis added 16 points and had 21 rebounds for the Bolts, whose defensive ploy worked on super NLEX import Al Thornton, who finished with 23 after making just 2-for-13 shots from the field.

Meanwhile, No. 1-ranked Rain or Shine and second-seeded Talk ‘N Text gun try to clinch Final Four slots against separate foes on Saturday afternoon as play shifts to the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

Owning twice-to-beat privileges, the Elasto Painters and the Tropang Texters slug it out with No. 8 Barangay Ginebra and No. 7 Barako Bull.

Rain or Shine vs Ginebra is a grudge rematch of the super-physical elimination round game they had a couple of weeks back, which the Painters won, 82-79, before Beau Belga was fined P70,000 for several rough plays and for taunting the Ginebra fans.