Nic Belasco dished out a double-double job with 23 points and 14 rebounds, and came through with clutch plays in the extra period to eventually bail Alaska out of trouble against a scrappy Welcoat team which just wouldn’t give up.
The Aces notched their third win in 10 games but not after squandering a pair of 20-point margins in the second quarter and what had looked like a safe five-point cushion at 85-80 in the last 28 seconds of regulation play.
Belasco canned in a free throw, intercepted a throw-in by Joey Mente and scored on a layup in the final nine seconds of overtime to scuttle Welcoat’s bid in the end.
Despite the win, Alaska coach Tim Cone was a picture of total frustration in attending the post-game interview.
"We’re having a hard time closing out. It’s very difficult when you don’t have confidence. We practice hard, but come game time, we just can’t close out. We can’t hold on to a big lead. These are the struggles we’re going through right now,"said Cone.
"But at 2-7, we’ll take any win we can get. We’ve taken one little step in a ladder and we hope to build on this. We need to get a lot more rungs up to be competitive," Cone added.
At least with the victory, Cone and his Aces got out of the cellar for the first time in a long while, catching up with the Coca-Cola Tigers at eighth place. The Dragons took the Aces’ spot as they suffered their eighth loss against three wins.
The Aces got off to a strong start but lapsed into crucial turnovers that allowed the Dragons to get back into the fight in the fourth quarter.