Aces derail Kings, gain twice-to-beat; Mixers also win

MANILA, Philippines - Alaska Milk ended Barangay Ginebra’s amazing six-game streak and clinched playoffs top-seeding as the Aces topped the Gin Kings, 102-93, in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup before a huge roaring crowd at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last night.

Held scoreless in the first five minutes of the third quarter, the Aces fought back and silenced the Kings in a five-minute stretch in the crunch to pull off the decisive win that guaranteed them of a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals.

With a 10-3 win-loss card, Alaska finishes ahead of everybody regardless of the result of its last game in the eliminations versus Globalport Sunday at the MOA Arena.

Ginebra, moving down to 7-6, bowed out of the running for the Top Two.

“It’s good that we value our possessions and we had enough as Ginebra made their comeback. We survived the run,” said Alaska coach Luigi Trillo.

Rob Dozier came through with a huge double-double with 28 points and 20 rebounds with Cyrus Baguio, Gabby Espinas, Calvin Abueva and Jayvee Casio adding at least 10 points each as the Aces made it two in a row over the Kings in the elims.

In the first game, titleholder San Mig Coffee bucked health woes as it hacked out an 80-66 victory over Air21 to secure a quarterfinals berth.

Marc Pingris provided the big push with 14 points, 14 rebounds, three assists, two blocks and one steal before he himself got hurt late in the game, giving the Mixers a  lock on a seat in the post-elims play.

Denzel Bowles delivered 29 points and 16 rebounds and PJ Simon ably filled in for the ailing James Yap in the wings, contributing 12 markers, six boards and one assist as the on-and-off San Mig Coffee squad breached the .500 mark for the first time in the tourney with a 7-6 win-loss card.

The victory also avenged SanMig’s 82-87 loss to Air21 in their previous tiff.

The setback was Air21’s eighth against five victories, close to ninth placer Barako Bull at 4-8. It was the Express’ their third straight loss after a streak of four victories.

“When you don’t have James (Yap) available, it’s sure nice to have PJ (Simon) out there,” said San Mig coach Tim Cone.

“James didn’t practice the whole week. He tried yesterday (Tuesday). The plan was to start him but he made the decision to come off the bench. But it’s been a struggle. It’s big-time sickness,” said Cone of the flu-stricken Yap.

The two-time MVP awardee went 0-of-6 from the field as he tried, in vain, to be of help to his teammates in 14 minutes of action.

Yap ended up with his second scoreless outing in nine years.

The Mixers, however, hardly felt Yap’s absence as Bowles, Pingris, Simon, Mark Barroca and Joe Devance stepped up their game.

“Good effort. We’ve got to start playing good basketball. This is the time to play. It’s always good to have a good momentum going to the playoffs,” said Cone.

Moments after Pingris was carried to the bench with a sprained ankle, Simon drained back-to-back baskets, giving the Mixers their biggest spread of 68-50 with time down to six minutes.

With Pingris out, KG Canaleta made 14 of his 26 points in the last seven minutes as the Express came to within 10 at 62-72 on Canaleta’s fourth and last triple.

Mark Barroca, however, stopped the Express’ momentum as the former FEU stalwart stole off Wynne Arboleda and scored on a breakaway layup, making it 74-62.

Michael Dunigan and Mark Isip were the only Air21 players who put in double-digit outputs with 18 and 10, respectively. The rest scored four markers or less.