Alaska Aces Game #11: The Boiling Point

The Boiling Point

Alaska 79 vs. B-Meg Derby Ace 84

By rick olivares

November 24, 2010

Araneta Coliseum

During the halftime break, while the coaching staff conferred in the adjacent locker room that was just vacated by the forlorn Powerade Tigers, the Alaska Aces talked about the non-calls and physical play of the B-Meg Derby Ace Llamados. “Tinutulak na ako ng dalawang kamay…” said forward Reynel Hugnatan who let his shake of his head finish off his sentence. Others exchanged similar views. Then back-up point guard Topex Robinson stood up and addressed his teammates.

“We ain’t gonna get the calls, you know that. We never do.” Now he got his teammates’ attention. “We just got to go out there and do what we have to do. Let’s just play. Nothing we can do about it.”

The Aces were up by a solitary point 37-36 at the half and when they returned to action on the court, they went back to their big line-up of Sam Eman, Joe Devance, and Sonny Thoss with Cyrus Baguio and LA Tenorio at the point.

When the Aces started the match, the B-Meg Derby Ace Llamados forced Tenorio and Baguio to get their offense going with the shot clock running perilously close to a violation. And that meant poor shot selection if not a hurried release. When they went with their more mobile frontline of Tony dela Cruz and Hugnatan, the Aces finally got their triangle offense going and with that the lead.

But Alaska head coach Tim Cone was worried about that despite them taking the lead after 24 minutes of play. “We made some bad shots. Now I’m worried about the quality of our shot selection. That means we’re placing more pressure on ourselves to play defense to get back that ball that we’re losing a lot.”

The start of the second half saw B-Meg show Alaska a different defensive wrinkle. In the first half, the Llamdos went with their bruising frontline of Jondan Salvador, Rommel Adducul, and the returning Marc Pingris.

Upon the resumption of the match, Niño Canaleta was upfront. Earlier, the high-leaping forward out of the University of the East who has made a name for himself as a slam dunker hit a huge triple that narrowed the gap to 37-36. The 15-minute break did nothing to cool him off.

He started out the third quarter by launching another trey. Now it forced Joe Devance farther out. And with B-Meg’s plethora of shifty and athletic swingmen, the defense was stretched.

Canaleta put back in an offensive rebound, stole a lazy floater by Baguio, laid the ball in off an alley-oop pass by Peter June Simon, and stroked his third trey at the 4:14 mark of the third to put B-Meg in the driver’s seat for good.

Reeling from the Llamados’ onslaught that put them behind by 14 points 59-73 after a James Yap triple at the start of the fourth frame, the Aces countered with simple execution.

In a five-minute span, Alaska scored 10 points off six free throws and a pair of jumpers. Although they narrowed the gap to 73-75 after dela Cruz jumper from 15-feet, Alaska had a tough time getting points inside the paint. It took LA Tenorio’s bucket (where the refs missed a foul by Yap) for their first real points inside the shaded lane and that was with 1:50 left to play.

The point guard’s bucket gave his side a 79-78 lead. Alaska had a chance to pad it further after Yap airballed a desperation three but Baguio who retrieved a loose ball in the Aces’ side of the court was called for stepping out of bounds.

Alaska was so intent on stopping Yap that they neglected Canaleta who straddled the three-point arc over by the right side. By the time the ball swung his way, there wasn’t any Ace with five feet of him. He knocked down a triple that broke the Aces’ back and sent them to their sixth loss – 84-79 -- in their last eight matches.

The Aces stopped a nine game stretch where they were outscored in the fourth quarter. They poured in 20 points to B-Meg’s 14, but the Llamados third quarter burst gave them a cushion. Moreover, they made the shots that mattered.

The loss was particularly painful for Alaska that Cone for the first time went up to PBA Supervisor of Officials Ramil Cruz to give him a piece of his mind over perceived non-calls.

The win was B-Meg’s fifth straight after a 1-5 start and the win allowed them to leapfrog past Alaska for fourth place in the Philippine Cup standings with three games to play.

Alaska fell to 5-6 and Cone couldn’t hide his displeasure over his team’s poor execution of their offense. They won the battle of the boards 51-42, had more assists 23-20, and more blocks 5-2. The Aces shot even better 43.7% to B-Meg’s 38.8% but it was their turnovers that were glaring and painful – 19 to the measly nine of the Llamados.

Cone struggled to contain his emotions. “Is our team good enough?” he wondered. Thus far, his team had beaten the doormats but struggled against the top tier squads. “I don’t have answers,” he said to no one in particular. He picked up his bag and left the Coliseum; the first time he did so without finishing the traditional closing prayer of the team.

B-Meg Derby Ace 84 – Yap James 19, Simon 19, Canaleta 17, Yap Roger 9, Allado 6, Maierhofer 4, Villanueva 4, Adducul 4, Salvador 2, Pingris 0, Gaco 0

Alaska 79 – Tenorio 15, dela Cruz 13, Devance 11, Eman 10, Thoss 9, Custodio 7, Baguio 7, Hugnatan 5, Borboran 2