Alaska Aces: One night in March

This appears in the Monday March 28, 2011 edition of the Business Mirror.

OH, LET ME HANG AROUND HERE FOR A WHILE. Cyrus Baguio suspends himself for a twisting layup over Marlou Aquino for a bucket.

One night in March

Alaska Aces 104 vs. Meralco Bolts 101

by rick olivares with photo by tunying p

March 25, 2011

Araneta Coliseum

It was another Friday night in the middle of March.

Traffic sucks outside on a gimmick night. People are streaming out from offices and graduation ceremonies. And there’s a pair of basketball games going on in the old hoop house in Cubao one of which is the sort that you’ll talk about for years and will grow with every retelling.

It began with a highlight. Alaska Aces off-guard Cyrus Baguio found teammate LD Williams lurking in the stratosphere and the former Wake Forest Deacon, who was staring down into the hoop, obliged his fellow gravity-defying teammate with a big time flush.

Two minutes and thirty-eight seconds later, Baguio suspended himself and everyone’s imagination with a jolens layup to put Alaska a point behind Meralco 7-6. Skyrus was on his game. It would be a good sign for the Aces because they would need all hands on deck for this one because barely a minute later, the course of the game would change.

After getting inadvertently poked in the eye by Gabby Espinas, Williams squinted, looked for a teammate while hoping the officials would whistle a deadball. He found neither. Half blind, he swung an elbow that grazed the Bolts’ Mac Cardona who double-teamed the American.

Now the whistle came. Only it was against Williams who was assessed a foul and a flagrant two at that. Meaning he was tossed from the game. Alaska head coach Tim Cone felt that sudden rush of blood to his head. Having lost to Talk ‘N Text a week earlier, playing without Williams meant that there was the possibility that they could lose the game to Meralco and getting dropped further down the standings.

To say that Cone was irate is an understatement. He was fucking pissed. And Cardona, ever the agitator tried to further get his goat by saying a few choice words that saw a brief exchange between the two. Cone was summarily teed up by the officials.

“I was flabbergasted by that call,” fessed up the thirteen-time PBA champion coach as three free throws gave the Bolts a 12-6 lead. “I was ready to concede the game right there.”

Only his team wasn’t.

Baguio showed that this if Alaska was going to find a way to win this game it would be by guile and constantly plugging away.

The heir to Paul Alvarez in the dormant air force of Alaska suckered Chris Ross into fouling him in the three-point zone. He did a pirouette to lose Cardona and hung in the air for a couple of seconds while gravity did the rest to Meralco center Marlou Aquino for a twisting layup to stay within striking distance 27-25.

Then Joe Devance, whose right ankle had balled up into the size of a tennis ball, found the verve to play in pain. Devance finished with 19 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 blocks. He took a bounce pass from Brandon Cablay as he hopped, skipped, and jump for a layup that gave Alaska an improbable 43-42 lead to show that they would not go gently into that good mid-March night.

But Meralco, on a two-game win streak, found the guns of Champ Oguchi, Sol Mercado, Ross, and Cardona firing on all cylinders.

Right before the Bolts ran onto the Araneta Coliseum Maplewood for their warm ups, Cardona yelled out one simple instruction to his teammates: “Talunin natin Alaska!” And they seemed well on their way to doing just that.

Oguchi, Mercado, and Cardona were having another phenomenal night as they combined for 77 points. Oguchi, the former Illinois State Redbird was hitting shots from everywhere; many of them with Aces’ forward Tony dela Cruz in his face.

At the 6:39 mark of the fourth quarter and Meralco up by 87-76 following a Mercado free throw, Cone sent back dela Cruz, Baguio, Devance, and LA Tenorio to join Sam Eman on the floor for one final push.

Then Tenorio, in another scintillating performance, scored 11 points including three triples in the last six minutes of the fourth quarter while playing great defense. Tenorio and Baguio hounded Meralco’s ball carriers into one error after another including the pilfering of Cardona’s pocket that led to an and-one off Mercado by Skyrus with 32 seconds to play.

While Mercado didn’t seem to foul Baguio, Alaska’s guard left some change off the window when he missed the free throw that would have iced the game. Meralco muffed a chance to bury Alaska but Oguchi lost the ball on a drive and Baguio drove the lane for another lay-in. This time, former Aces teammate Rey Hugnatan blocked his path and clearly fouled Baguio on the arm. With .3 of a second left, Baguio whiffed on one of two free throws – “I was surprised he missed one shot,” Cone said later on as he thought that the former UST Growling Tiger had finally got his free throw shooting pulse.

And it was on to overtime.

Oguchi nailed a jumper. Cyrus chased down a missed shot of his own to find an open Devance that tied the match. Oguchi missed a jumper and Alaska answered with a go-ahead basket by Devance as the Alaska crowd came alive. Meralco’s Gabby Espinas short-armed a jumper that Devance converted on the opposite end for another bucket. And just like that, it was 100-96 for Alaska.

Oguchi scored to bring the Bolts a bucket down and calm some bench anxieties but on Alaska's next offensive, Tenorio found dela Cruz who was alone on the right wing. Dela Cruz, the 12-year pro from West Covina, California was 1-9 from the field at that point. “As a shooter, you always try to keep shooting because the mindset is you’re going to make that next shot. I knew my shots were short up to that point so I made sure I followed through on it.” The jumper swished through for a 102-98 Alaska lead.

Then on the next play, knowing that Oguchi was going to be given the shot, dela Cruz, determined not to be beaten again, blocked the three-point attempt. Tenorio finished off Meralco with two more free throws for a 104-101 win.

As Tenorio took his place on the free throw line, Cardona looked at the PBA Commissioner’s Row with a disbelieving look. He shook his head at how they could let a won game slip away.

It took Cone a minute to compose himself before he addressed the media. By the time he faced his team, he gave in to his sentiments.

“Friday night in the middle of March. It’s just become memorable. It will fade a bit but this one you will remember. The intensity, the desire, and the overtime win this one Friday night in the middle of March…”

Alaska 104 – Tenorio 33, Devance 19, Baguio 17, Thoss 9, Borboran 5, Eman 5, Williams 4, Custodio 4, Cablay 4, dela Cruz 4, Thiele 0

Meralco 101 – Oguchi 30, Mercado 24, Cardona 23, Espinas 10, Ross 7, Taulava 5, Isip 2, Gamalinda 0, Hugnatan 0, Aquino 0, Ritualo 0

Post-script:

LA Tenorio was cramping up in overtime and asked for a minute. “I just needed a few seconds to rest before going back in,” he later said. And he did. He found dela Cruz for his sixth assist of the match and the strength to hit two of four free throws. “I learned my lesson,” added LA. “It’s a bad habit that I have. I sweat so much. And I needed that short rest. Buti na lang we held on.”


Alaska next plays Rain or Shine (next Friday) while Meralco goes up against Air21. 

Cyrus Baguio’s best shots of the game: the jolens layup, the Chris Ross sucker play, the hang time shot, the stretch lay-up, and the layup on Sol Mercado. Below is the "jolens" shot.