Milkmen spoil Beermen in OT

Alaska Milk played bad but San Miguel played worse as the Aces squeezed out a 67-63 overtime win last night to force a one-game standoff with the Beermen in their Samsung PBA Governors Cup best-of-five semifinal playoff at the Philsports Arena.

Baskets came in trickles for both sides with the Aces just making a little more at endgame as they avoided falling in a hole that might have spelled the end of their title bid in the season-opening tournament.

With the two teams back to scratch, they again clash for the go-ahead win in Game Three on Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.

"That was from the brink of elimination. I don’t want to say it but it’s obvious, if we had lost, it would be tough to beat San Miguel three in a row," said Alaska coach Tim Cone.

"I think the pressure was heavy on us, even in overtime after we survived outright loss in regulation period. But I think San Miguel’s a little beat up and we’re in better shape," Cone added.

Whether beat up, in shape or not, both teams, however, obviously played ugly, each one appearing not keen to win the game.

Alaska shot a shade better, hitting at a 38-percent clip as against San Miguel’s 33-percent shooting. And the two teams committed a combined 42 turnovers, about 10 above the average in the season per game.

If there’s one player who played well below expectation, it could be Lamount Strothers, forcing interim San Miguel coach Siot Tanquingcen to sit him out in the entire fourth quarter.

Tanquingcen fielded Strothers back in overtime but he hardly made a difference, failing to come to the Beermen’s rescue.

James Head and Ron Riley had their own share of boo-boos but provided the baskets that mattered most in the end, scoring all of Alaskaªs 10 points in overtime.