Aces cash in on Pals’ breakdown

Alaska Milk found Talk N Text’s signal crackling with its cell site down minus Asi Taulava and the Aces made the most out of it, routing the Phone Pals, 96-78, for a second straight win in the Samsung PBA All-Filipino Cup at the Araneta Coliseum last night.

The Aces played a well-balanced ballgame and a former Talk N Text mainstay, ironically, put in the biggest numbers, leading the Alaska charge against the hapless Taulava-less Phone Pals.

Don Camaso, who said he finally found a right home at Alaska, piled up 17 points and 10 rebounds, providing one big footnote for the Aces who had an outstanding showing in making a followup on their 91-82 whipping of the Sta. Lucia Realtors in the season opener a week ago.

Running against the tall Alaska team, a Talk N Text team, which was actually sans two key players in Taulava and Vic Pablo, struggled all night and suffered its second straight loss following a losing debut against Shell last Wednesday.

"They’re hurting and we simply took advantage of it," said Alaska power forward Don Allado, who also churned out big numbers with 13 points, seven assists and one block.

"At this point, it’s so far so good for us. But we’ll see what happens when we face real adversity," said Alaska coach Tim Cone, pointing out they didn’t encounter the full potential of Talk N Text minus Taulava and Pablo.

"Talk N Text is a wounded tiger right now. It would surely be a different story the next time we face them," added Cone.

Taulava served the second of two-game suspension he incurred from the Comissioner’s Office for testing positive for traces of marijuana in a recent test.

Incidentally, PBA commissioner Noli Eala and Department of Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit signed a memorandum of agreement last night for the holding of mandatory drug test in the league with the help of the government agency.

"We want to ensure that the PBA is drug free. We want to protect the image of the league as well as its players," said the league commissioner. Aside from Camaso and Allado, two other Aces in Ali Peek and Mike Cortez scored in double figures while John Arigo nearly matched the total Talk N Text assist output (14) with 12.

Learning its lesson from the last game, Purefoods stayed focused till the end and hacked out a 78-69 win over Shell in the second game.

The Hotdogs lost their opening game against the Barangay Ginebra Kings, squandering a nine-point spread in the last two minutes.

With everything falling into place for alaska, the Aces took control from start to finish, leading by as many as 23 points, 44-21, at one point.

They sat on a 54-34 cushion at halftime and kept leads of no less than 13 points in the final 24 minutes of play.

Alaska shot 46.7 percent from the field as against Talk N Text’s paltry 32-percent clip.

Jimmy Alapag, the smallest man on the court, paced Talk N Text with 24 points that went with five rebounds and two assists. Bong Ravena added 12 points and Norman Gonzales 10.