MANILA, Philippines -- Dondon Hontiveros fired explosive bombs four nights after the New Year revelries.
Hontiveros, struggling in the series with a sprained ankle, came out of his shell and unloaded big three-pointers in the fourth quarter as Alaska Milk withstood Rain or Shine, 79-76, to barge to the PBA Philippine Cup Finals at the MOA Arena Sunday night.
Limited to just two points through the first three quarters, Hontiveros found no better time to hit a good rhythm, firing away five treys in the payoff period as the Aces outfought the Elasto Painters in a dogfight to advance to the best-of-seven finale versus the San Miguel Beermen.
Game One is at 7 p.m. Wednesday over at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
San Miguel and Alaska, the league’s two winningest ball clubs with 19 and 14 championships, respectively, slug it out in a title playoff for the first time in five years. It’s their first titular duel in an all-Filipino tourney since the Tim Cone-mentored Alaska team humbled coach Ron Jacobs and his SMB team in 1998.
This time, figuring in a coaching duel are the former coaching pair of Leo Austria and Alex Compton. They worked as head coach and assistant coach in their time at Welcoat (now Rain or Shine).
“Without question, San Miguel is the best team in the league right now,” said Compton. “What do they have? Two MVPs (Arwind Santos and June Mar Fajardo), a deep bench and a coach that I admire so much.”
It will likely be defense versus offense.
Game Six of the Alaska-RoS semis faceoff was a defensive battle that turned to a three-point shooting contest. Alaska pulled through as Hontiveros came through with 5-of-7 three-pointers in the fourth quarter while the RoS gunners ran out of artillery at the finish.
Falling behind at 76-79 on back-to-back treys by Hontiveros, the Elasto Painters yielded the series as Gabe Norwood and Jeff Chan missed three attempts from beyond the arc in the last 20 seconds.
Alaska won the series at 4-2 with earlier victories in Game One, Game Three and Game Five.
In the end, Compton still attributed their win on defense.
“The best thing for me was that as much as I love Dondon, we won on defense, we won on stops in the end,” said Compton, making the PBA finals in his second conference as Alaska head coach.
“I’m so proud of the guys with their character that I don’t know where it’s coming from,” Compton also said.
Before Hontiveros took over offensively, the Aces really made a killing defensively, holding the Elasto Painters to 28 points in the first half.
Hontiveros, No. 5 in the league behind Allan Caidic, Jimmy Alapag, Ronnie Magsanoc and Al Solis in three-point scoring ladder, top scored with 17 points with Calvin Abueva and Sonny Thoss adding 15 and 11, respectively.
“Feeling ko talaga amin ito,” said Hontiveros.
Jeff Chan, Paul Lee, Ryan Arana and Beau Belga came out strong in the third quarter as the E-Painters moved ahead, 60-56, after trailing by eight, 28-36, at the half.
The Aces capped the second quarter with an eight-to-nothing salvo to take that eight-point lead into the halftime break.
Limited to 11-of-37 field shooting in the first 24 minutes, the E-Painters surpassed that just in the third quarter with Chan firing away nine, Lee rifling in seven and Arana and Belga tossing in five apiece.
Chan, Lee and Belga combined for four-of-seven three-pointers in their key third-quarter assault.
But Hontiveros outgunned all of them at the finish.