Aces bitter past still haunts Cone

A bitter lesson in the not-so-distant past may well serve Alaska Milk in good stead in its search of another crack at the much-coveted All-Filipino crown.

Alaska coach Tim Cone hopes they have grown wiser and be able to erase the stigma of their harrowing loss to Purefoods in the 2002 Governors Cup finale.

Cone and his Aces try to put the Giants away as they go for a three-to-nil lead in their Gran Matador Brandy PBA Philippine Cup best-of-seven semifinal duel at the Araneta Coliseum today.

"A lot of people will remember history when Derrick Brown was around. We won the first two games but they were still able to turn the series around and won the championship," said Cone.

"I’ve learned many lessons in 17 years of coaching. That’s one of the worst lessons I’ve ever learned. So I’m not going to be happy till the series is over hopefully in our favor," Cone added.

The Aces vow to come out stronger and stay focused in Game Three set at 4:40 p.m.

Red Bull and San Miguel Beer battle in the 7:35 p.m. mainer, disputing the go-ahead win in their own side of the Final Four now down to a best-of-five series.

"This team (Purefoods) can come back and we have to steel ourselves to get better and hopefully make a different story this time," said Cone. "I’m sure they will be going to take heart from the Miami-Dallas series. (Purefoods coach) Ryan (Gregorio) will get his guys motivated and we have to be ready to take the challenge."

The Alaska mentor feels Game Three could well be the turning point if Purefoods were to duplicate Miami’s feat in the recent NBA finals.

"If we win, they have to come up with four great games to win the series. It’s not impossible but highly improbable. It’s very tough to win four back-to-the-wall games," said Cone.