Alaska gets past Petron as Balkman loses cool

Petron Blaze import Renaldo Balkman proclaimed himself as ‘unbreakable’ sometime last week after having led the Boosters to five straight wins.
Last night, Alaska methodically tore him apart and after that, Balkman lost his top and showed his bad side by venting his frustration on — of all people — his teammates.
Alaska held Balkman to a paltry six points and the Aces put together an endgame to remember to post an 83-73 decision of the Boosters and reclaim the lead in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup eliminations at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.
Normally, the Aces’ 14-3 windup inside the final 3:37 would have been the story of the game, but Balkman made a scene ugly enough that it took some of the attention away from the Alaska win.
Balkman threw up an airball inside the paint and was arguing with referees about a foul he felt that wasn’t called with 21 seconds remaining and the outcome already beyond doubt.
And instead of allowing his teammates to pacify him so as not to be slapped with a technical foul in the process, Balkman shoved his teammates and coaching staff away one by one, ultimately pushing Ronald Tubid away and then choking Arwind Santos.
The National Basketball Association veteran, who came into the game averaging a league-best 28.3 points, even cursed assistant coach Biboy Ravanes and his American friend who stepped inside the court trying to pacify him.
After the game, all the other members of the team held on to Santos, who was chasing Balkman into the dugout. The door of the Petron Blaze locker room remained closed and no members of the media were allowed inside.
Balkman has been summoned to appear before commissioner Chito Salud on Monday.
The win was the sixth in seven games for the Aces, who rebounded mightily from a thorough beating taken at the hands of San Mig Coffee just last Wednesday.
Alaska snapped Petron Blaze’s five-game winning run and relegated the Boosters to third place after Rain or Shine also strung up its fifth win earlier in the night with a tightrope 103-95 decision of hardluck Globalport.
“I’m proud of Robert (Dozier, the Alaska import), they really tried to be physical with him and he played through the bad times in this game,” Alaska coach Luigi Trillo said. “We had a load today, Balkman was the main reason why they won five straight (games).
“He is the catalyst of that team,” Trillo continued. “I am proud of the way Robert played against him.” Dozier finished with 18 points and 26 rebounds and Sonny Thoss was the other battering ram in the middle for the Aces, finishing with 14 points and handing out two crucial feeds in the endgame to trigger that solid finishing kick.
Thoss first found Dondon Hontiveros with a pop-out pass for a triple and then fed a cutting Jayvee Casio for a layup before two Cyrus Baguio baskets sandwiched an Alex Cabagnot triple that made it 78-73 from 69-70 going into the final 46.7 seconds.
And that was all that Alaska needed to dust off the Boosters and ultimately send Balkman into a fit of rage.
The players came out of the dugout and Santos said that he and Balkman had talked things over with some team officials confirming that Balkman would stay on.