Bleachers Brew: Air21 enters playoffs by dropping Alaska

LD Williams throws down a two-handed flush on Air21, but the former Wake Forest Deacon's 27 points wasn't enough to tote Alaska to a win against a resurgent Express who were led by Alpha Bangura and Dondon Hontiveros.

Breaking the habit

Air21 92 vs. Alaska 83

by rick olivares with photo by tunying p

April 5, 2011

Araneta Coliseum

Tim Cone was optimistic. Why not? He had his full crew back. LD Williams was finally back in harness after being out for nearly two matches. Forward Ervin Sotto was in his playing gear after being out for nearly six weeks. “We want to go into the playoffs with a win. I think it’s time that we develop championship habits,” said Cone to his team.

The Aces had gotten off to a good start in the recent Philippine Cup and in the ongoing Commissioner’s Cup only to sputter afterwards. “It’s of great concern,” offered Cone whose squad had lost two of its past three matches. Worse, they had not beaten Air21 in this 36^th season of the PBA.

When the Aces posted a 3-0 start in the last Philippine Cup, the Express dealt them their first loss that sent them on a free fall from which they have never recovered. Now on the eve of the quarterfinals, a souped up Air21 squad stood in their way.

Bolstered by key acquisitions, the Express were hungry and out to prove a point. And heading into the match, they were riding the crest f a three game win streak their best since the 2009 Fiesta Conference. With Air21 head coach Bong Ramos getting heads up play from nearly every player he sent in, Alaska was having a tough time matching up.

Air21’s bigmen were drawing out their Alaska counterparts and the guards like Wynne Arboleda were taking it inside. And after 24 minutes of play, the Aces were down by three 42-39.

“I like that we’ve held them down to 42 points,” said Cone to his team. “But we only scored 39. And we have to challenge their shooters. How many did (Carlo) Sharma get on us? Six points? We have to challenge those shots. When we do, they miss them.”

In the Aces’ previous loss to Rain or Shine, assistant coach Dickie Bachmann ambled over to center Sonny Thoss. “You gotta have more than that,” he said of Thoss’ six rebounds in the match. In the first quarter against Air21, the Fil-Papua New Guinean matched that total. Only he missed all three of his field goal attempts.

“We’ve got some bad habits coming out,” Cone pointed out to his staff. “We allow ourselves to get into a hole and then we try to come back. Some days we do and on most days we don’t.”

The staff noted that they had held Air21’s Danny Seigle, in the midst of a scoring renaissance with his new club, to two points. Seigle’s former San Miguel teammates Dorian Peña also had two points but had matched Thoss’ output off the boards. It was only Dondon Hontiveros who seemed to be shooting well as he had eight points.

For Seigle, he downplayed his new team’s fortune of making the playoffs as compared his old club’s badly missing the next round in spite of the earlier win against Rain or Shine. “I just want to help my team,” he simply said. “Doesn’t matter where you are or what team you’re in. The objective remains the same. And that’s to win.”

For Alaska, the team didn’t display the energy it had prior to Williams’ suspension. The second unit briefly provided it as Bonbon Custodio went on a seven-point tear (he would not score in the second half) but since the incredible rally against Powerade, they had not had their players firing on all cylinders. In the previous loss to the Elasto Painters, Tenorio might as well chalked up a DNP-CD (Did Not Play-Coach’s Decision). In this match, forward Joe Devance was struggling with his outside shooting. He shot a measly 33% from the field and only had two points. Perhaps the most telling statistics aside from the dismal shooting was in turnovers. Ramos’ troops only committed three but Cone’s wards had nine. Air21 collected seven points off those errors while the Aces managed only two.

And the malaise continued as the third quarter began with turnover number 10 for Alaska as Air21 claimed a bucket off it (Alaska finished with a game high 21 TOs that their opponent parlayed into 21 huge points).

It looked to get worse as come backing PBA player Leo Avenido scored on a layup to give Air21 a 79-61 lead at the start of the fourth quarter. And suddenly, the Aces came to life. The ironic thing is, it had to come from 21-year old LD Williams whose trey at the 10-minute mark gave Alaska the spark it was looking for.

Just like that, Alaska dropped an 18-5 bomb on Air21 that brought the lead down to a more manageable three-point deficit 84-81 following another Williams triple at the 4:12 mark of the fourth. By all right, Alaska should have seized the lead. But they had missed five consecutive free throws. Incredibly, it got worse. Williams kept the Aces within striking distance as he scored on a nifty spin move for an undergoal stab over the Express Alpha Bangura (who finished with 25 points) to make it 86-83 with exactly two minutes left in the match.

That was to prove the final points Alaska would score the rest of the game. The atrocious shooting from the field and the line (his teammates would miss four more free throws that would have altered the match’s ending) and turnovers finally took a toll. Air21 closed out their elimination round campaign by scoring six more points for a 92-83 win and their fourth straight victory. More importantly, they advanced to their second straight quarterfinals appearance where they’d lock horns once more with Alaska in a best-of-three series. "We're a work in progress," said Ramos outside his team's dugout where there was a jubilant air. "Sana tuloy tuloy na 'to but there's a lot of hard work that we must do if we want to progress."

Alaska wanted to win the match to gain momentum heading into the playoffs. Instead, they had given the Express the mental advantage of having bested the Aces in their two head-to-head match ups this season thus far.

“Bad habits,” muttered a disappointed Cone as he entered the team dugout. “Bad habits.”

Air21 93 – Bangura 25, Hontiveros 18, Arboleda 17, Seigle 9, Urbiztondo 6, Sharma 6, Reyes 5, Najorda 2, Avenido 2, Peña 2, Juntilla 0, Artadi 0

Alaska 83 – Williams 27, Tenorio 12, Thoss 8, Baguio 8, Custodio 7, Eman 7, dela Cruz 6, Devance 4, Bugia 4, Borboran 0, Cablay 0

PBA Commissioner's Cup

Quarterfinals sked:

Game 1 April 8, 2011

Cuneta Astrodome

5pm Ginebra vs Rain or Shine

7pm Alaska vs Air21

Game 2 April 10, 2011

Cuneta Astrodome

5pm Air21 vs Alaska

7pm Rain or Shine vs Ginebra

Game 3 (if neccessary) April 13, 2011