Kings lord it over Realtors from start to finish

Barangay Ginebra overwhelmed Sta. Lucia Realty with a supercharged performance, hacking out a 109-89 rout to assure itself of at least a tie for second place at the close of the Talk n Text PBA Philippine Cup double-round classifications.

Before a good Friday crowd at the Ynares Center, the Kings came out with great resolve, dominating the Realtors from start to finish for the victory that guaranteed the team of a playoff crack at the second semifinal seat.

Ginebra, now at 12-4, regained a full-game edge over the second-running San Miguel Beer squad (11-5).

Sliding to 10-7, Sta. Lucia is now hard-pressed to win its last game against Coca-Cola Friday to gain a crack at an outright quarterfinals berth.

The Realtors blew a good opportunity for an automatic semis entry on four defeats in their last five outings.

Sunday Salvacion churned out a career-high 30 points including 17 in the first quarter fuelling the Kings’ early breakaway.

"It’s just one of those games where we shot well from start to finish," said Ginebra coach Jong Uichico.

In the first game, Alaska Milk waged a fierce fourth-quarter chase to beat Air21, 100-98, in a duel between two teams already gearing up for the wildcard-round plays.

The Aces came charging back from a 44-60 halftime deficit, finding a way to repeat over the Express though left to fend for themselves by coach Tim Cone the entire second half.

"I must admit, I’ve done that just a few times in my 18 years as coach," said Cone of his antic which seemed to work for the team.

"At this point of the tournament, we’ll take whatever works," said Cone, who abandoned his team in the second half, exasperated over the Aces’ erratic game early on.

Psyched up, the Aces went to work in the last two quarters of play with assistant coaches Jojo Lastimosa and Dickie Bachmann calling the shots for the team.

Jeff Cariaso led all scorers with 24 points while Willie Miller fired 16 points including nine of his team’s final 16 points with a little over six minutes to go as Alaska ended a three-game slide, notching a sixth win against 10 losses.

Nic Belasco, Tony dela Cruz and Joachim Thoss also produced double-digit figures for the Aces.

Rookie Arwind Santos rifled in 18 with Niño Canaleta, Ranidel de Ocampo, Gary David, Mark Telan and Aris Dimaunahan each adding 11 or more.