Alaska shackles Red Bull, Bunn

Alaska Milk kept the explosive Joe Bunn out of his comfort zone with a resolute defense last night, and the Aces stopped the Red Bull Thunder on their tracks with an 81-58 rout in the Samsung PBA Governors Cup at the Astrodome.

Tops on defense in the league at the moment, the Aces worked even harder defensively when ranged against the league’s No. 1 offensive team, holding the Thunder 35 points below their average output in hacking out the surprising demolition job.

Even Alaska coach Tim Cone was surprised they came up with the emphatic win over the Thunder, saying he was expecting a down-the-wire duel.

"Obviously we did a good job defensively. We did a good job in containing Bunn. He’s a tremendous player but we managed to keep him out of his comfort zone," said Cone as they stopped the Thunder and, in the process, pulled even with their victim at second place on identical 3-1 win-loss cards.

With Red Bull crashing back to earth following three straight wins over Shell, Airfreight 2100/FedEx and Selecta RP, Purefoods remained the lone unbeaten team in the field. It goes for a fourth successive victory against Coca-Cola at 3:45 p.m. tonight at the Philsports arena. The other game pits the two national candidates teams.

Barangay Ginebra became depleted all the more with Vergel Meneses joining Jun Limpot and Banjo Calpito in the injured list but the Kings gained a big boost from new import Des Ferguson as they barged into the win column with a come-from-behind 80-72 victory over the Shell Turbochargers in the second game.

Shell was supposed to play with a new import in Nantambu Willingham. However, Willingham wasn’t allowed to play after he failed to secure a license from the Games and Amusements Board.