Aces slam door on Thunder

Alaska Milk kept its mastery of Red Bull, repeating with a 98-81 win in their Hallowen duel to close the PBA Governors Cup Magic Four door on the Thunder at the Philsport Arena last night.

The Aces once again came out of the rut, playing a well-balance game againt a stunned Red Bull side to snap a two-game skid and stay in the hunt for a slot in the quarterfinals with a 4-7 card, tying the Ginebra Kings at seventh place.

The Thunder suffered a second loss to the Aces in two games in the conference and fourth in five meetings in the season as they moved out of contention for the twice-to-beat privilege in the quarterfinals.

"We’re on a roller-coaster ride but we’re making progress and that’s the good thing although we’re down (in the lower half of the chart)," said Alaska coach Tim Cone.

The Aces nearly squandered third-quarter leads of 19 points but pulled through just the same on clutch baskets by Ron Riley, Rodney Santos, Kenneth Duremdes and Ali Peek at endgame.

After the Red Bull threatened at 83-86, Alaska got its act together again and broke away for good at 92-83.

John Arigo also made his presence felt in the contest, firing eight of his 13 in the third quarter where the Aces erected two 19-points leads with the last at 63-44.

Meanwhile, the Basketball Association of the Philippines and the PBA are set to sign a memorandum of agreement that will pave the way for another tour of duty by the PBA stars in the quadrennial games set in Pusan, Korea next year.

This was announced by PBA executive director Sonny Barrios after a lengthy discussion with BAP president Tiny Literal, vice president Bonifacio Alentajan, secretary general Graham Lin and treasurer Christian Tan.

Barrios said lawyers from the two groups including PBA legal counsel Butch Cleofe and the BAP’s Alentajan will draft the MOA to be signed by PBA commissioner Jun Bernardino and Literal on or before Nov. 9.