ALASKA stood its ground in the payoff period, breaking away late and oust Mahindra, 107-91, and getting back on track with this crucial victory in the 2017 Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup last night at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City last night.
Despite tweaking his ankle in the first half, Vic Manuel still led the Aces, scoring 20 points on 9-of-13 shooting and hauling three rebounds. He was helped out by his buddy Calvin Abueva, who contributed 18 points and 10 rebounds.
The Aces turned a tight game into a one-sided affair late as they ended the contest with a booming 31-15 finishing kick in the fourth to turn a 76-all deadlock early in the period into a sudden rout.
Alaska improved to 5-4 and created a six-team logjam from second to seventh places.
More importantly, the Aces moved themselves a step closer to securing a berth in the quarterfinals and also kept their chance of having a shot at taking the No. 2 seed and the last twice-to-beat advantage in the next round.
“Sobrang importante nitong game na ito sa amin. Kailangan talagang manalo,” said Manuel. “Kailangan ma-continue namin itong magandang nilaro namin sa next two games pa.”
With the Aces’ win, the three bottom teams at the moment were all eliminated in the process.
The Floodbuster (2-7), NLEX (2-7) and Meralco (3-7) are now all booted out of contention.
Among the nine other teams, one more will have an early vacation when the dust settles as only the top eight teams will move forward in the quarters.
After ending up tied at the end of one, the two teams traded the middle quarters with Alaska taking the second, 26-15, and leading by double-digits for most part in a stretch, while Mahindra took the third period, 30-21, to climb back and make it anyone’s game entering the fourth with the Aces only ahead, 74-72.
But Alaska was the one which rose to the occasion when it mattered down the stretched as it used its veteran zest to take charge once again and take the important win.
Mahindra fought hard, but ran out of gas in the last 12 minutes.
Alex Mallari led Mahindra with his game-high 23 points, three rebounds and eight assists.
As of this report, National team coach Chot Reyes is about to announce the players that will compose the 24-man pool for the next Smart Gilas Pilipinas.
Twelve of them are automatically reserved for the cadets attached to the team, while the other 12 will be selected from the 12 teams.