Silent for most of the night, a trio of veterans saved Alaska from an impending collapse and helped move the Aces closer to a coveted top two finish everyone in the PBA Philippine Cup field is chasing.

With the Aces almost blowing a 20-point third quarter lead, Cyrus Baguio, Dondon Hontiveros and JV Casio delivered the telling blows in the stretch on Friday night as Alaska posted an 89-81 victory over NLEX to again pace the eliminations at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

Hontiveros scored five straight points at the height of the NLEX rally to give the Aces some breathing room, and when the Road Warriors came closest at four points with under two minutes remaining, Casio and Baguio took turns in hurting the enemy.

Casio hit a wide open triple – just his second and last basket of the game – before the acrobatic Baguio drained a looping jumper off the frozen NLEX defense inside that gave Alaska an 87-80 lead going into the last 1:10.

The win was the third straight in a 6-1 card for the Aces, who are making it no secret that they would want to finish in the top two after the elimination round.

With four games left, Alaska needs to win at least three to virtually assure itself of eight No. 1 or 2 and be seeded into the Final Four outright. Those who finish from Nos. 3-10 will all go into a quarterfinal round, where those in the upper half would need to win just once to make the semifinals.

The loss was significant for the Road Warriors, who dropped to 4-3 and practically kissed a top two finish goodbye. They also have four games remaining and must sweep them to be safe from finishing from No. 7 down and be required to beat a higher-ranked foe two straight times.

Alaska posted a couple of 20-point leads, the last at 62-42 late in the third quarter only to go on a sporadic spell that allowed the Road Warriors to creep back into the fight.

Sean Anthony and Enrico Villanueva presided upon the Road Warriors’ searing comeback and almost succeeded, with Villanueva hitting a layup that made it 82-78 with still 1:52 left to play.

But Casio struck with that triple and Baguio drilled that floater over Anthony to sandwich a Jonas Villanueva basket for a seven-point lead that finally took the fight out of the Warriors and deal NLEX a first loss in its last three games.

“We weren’t happy with some of our decisions in the fourth (period),” Alaska coach Alex Compton said. “(But) defensively, in general, I thought we were pretty solid. We were really helping each other out. We just missed a lot of open layups (in the fourth).

Sonny Thoss paced the Aces with 16 points and Calvin Abueva had 10, with both frontliners completing double-doubles after pulling down 10 rebounds each. Abueva came off the bench to also issue four assists and chalk up the same number of steals.

Anthony scored 17 of his 21 points in the final period, 12 of them coming inside the first six minutes to lead the Road Warriors to the furious rally that just lost steam in the end.

Asi Taulava, meanwhile, started out cold and suffered a scary landing on his back with 7:50 remaining in the third period after getting his shot blocked by Vic Manuel.

The 6-foot-10 veteran, who finished with just 10 points and seven rebounds, lay on the floor for a couple of minutes and was never the same, obviously feeling something.

Meanwhile, San Miguel Beer, the defending champion which Alaska overtook in the standings at No. 1, will again try to climb into a tie with the Aces when the Beermen battle sister squad Star on Saturday at Mall of Asia Arena.

The Beermen will be taking a two-game winning streak into their 5:15 p.m. clash with the Hotshots, who are in the longest losing streak under the watch of new coach Jason Webb.

Star has lost its last three games and is at 2-5, needing to sweep its remaining four games to have a chance at finishing in the upper half.

While the battle at the top has been very interesting, a similarly tight race is going on among the tailenders with Mahindra and Meralco clashing for the right to get out of the cellar.

Mahindra has a 1-5 record and is tied for 10th spot with Blackwater, while Meralco is at the bottom with a 1-6 slate. A victory, coupled with a Star loss, would boost the winner into playoff position with the loser to be in dire straits.