THE more things change, the more they stay the same.
This holds true for the Philippine Basketball Association as well with San Miguel Beer and Alaska—he two teams that seemed to be battling for supremacy all season long last year—again at the forefront.
Midway through the elimination round of the Philippine Cup and the Beermen and the Aces are tied on top of the standings.
The Beermen and the Aces have been dominant. Not even Barangay Ginebra and GlobalPort could provide any more than token challenge.
San Miguel Beer gave Barangay Ginebra a harsh reality check with a 100-82 decision last Sunday.
Everyone waited on the matchup between June Mar Fajardo and Greg Slaughter to decide the outcome of the match. And Fajardo delivered. He tallied 22 points, 14 rebounds, two steals and one assist to power the Beermen to the decisive victory.
The Aces were equally dominant when they crushed the GlobalPort Batang Pier.
Alaska beat GlobalPort at its own run-and- gun game to post a rousing 123-104 rout Nov. 20. The Aces ran at every opportunity and shot the net to shreds to win the game pulling away. Alaska led from the very start, outscored GlobalPort in every quarter as they never let go of their hold on the lead and gradually padded their advantage to post the easy victory.
The Aces relied on size and speed to score inside almost at will. Vic Manuel and Sonny Thoss muscled aside their defenders to score from the paint to push Alaska to an insurmountable 118-96 advantage with just two minutes left to play.
Veteran Cyrus Baguio scored a team-high 17 points to go with two assists to win Player of the Game honors.
“I have to hand it to our players. They moved the ball well. They played as a team. I like how we shared the ball. How we defended. How we played as a team,” said Alaska Aces head coach Alex Compton as he acknowledged the hard work put in by his players.
Terrence Romeo scored a game-high 33 points, off the bench, but it was simply no match for the balanced scoring of the Aces who had eight players scoring in double figures.
These included Manuel with 16 points; Chris Banchero, 14; RJ Jazul 14; Thoss 14; Eric Menk, 12; Calvin Abueva, 11; and Jvee Casio, 10.
Alaska (4 wins, 1 loss) and San Miguel Beer (4-1) lead the standings.
Trailing them are the Rain Or Shine Elasto Painters (3-1), Barako Bull Energy (3-2), GlobalPort (3-2), the NLEX Road Warriors (3-2), the Talk N Text Tropang Texters (3-2), Barangay Ginebra (2-3) and the Star Hotshots (2-3).
Bringing up the rear are the Blackwater Elite (1-3), the Mahindra Enforcers (1-4) and the Meralco Bolts (0-5).
It’s not hard to see what brought San Miguel and Alaska success. It’s team chemistry, teamwork and continuity. Well, it helps that both squads were dominant last season as the two teams battled for the championship in two of three conferences last year.
San Miguel’s only notable addition this season is Brian Heruela and he’s hardly been a factor in five games thus far. Alaska’s most notable recruit is Kevin Racal and he was scoreless in his first game when the Aces battled GlobalPort.
This early a repeat of last season’s championship matchups —with San Miguel and Alaska battling for the Philippine Cup title—seem inevitable.