The Alaska Milk Aces would not wait long to herald their return to
paramount position with their new bunch of players and new coach – and
how!
Alaska took the best the back-to-the-wall Barangay Ginebra could
offer Sunday night, fighting the Kings toe-to-toe through 40 minutes
before unleashing an incredible closing run to pull off a 104-80 victory
that completed their clean sweep of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals
before a record crowd at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Best Import winner Rob Dozier and his team shut down Ginebra in the
last eight minutes of play and ran away with the win sealing their
mighty domination of the tournament for Alaska’s first championship in
its post-Tim Cone era and 14th overall since joining the league in 1986.
“It feels like a first-timer again and I feel like 24 again,” said
team owner Wilfred Steven Uytengsu as he personally accepted the first
trophy delivered by the new Alaska group led by coach Luigi Trillo.
“This team has a lot of potential,” said Uytengsu of the bunch
bannered by Sonny Thoss, Cyrus Baguio, Jayvee Casio and super rookie
Calvin Abueva.
Thoss played a key role as the anchor of their defense on Ginebra
import Vernon Macklin, had his numbers, and went on to win the Papa
John’s Pizza Finals MVP award.
“You have to credit Ginebra. We know Macklin is hurt and Mark Caguioa is hurt. But they returned backing the talk,” said Trillo.
“We played more to their rhythm. They did some zone at ginulo kami sa
depensa to rush things. Credit to our guys too, they were confident,
stayed patient then fatigue set in for Ginebra,” Trillo added.
As the Kings faded away at the finish, the Aces roared with a 24-1
closing salvo and got away with the three-game sweep witnessed by a
record crowd of 23,436, topping the 23,108-strong attendance in Game
Three of the Ginebra-Talk 'N Text semifinals.
The amazing Aces walloped the Kings by an average of 16.3 points in
the finale. And Alaska swept Ginebra in five games in all in the whole
tourney.
“I’m just overwhelmed. At the start of the tournament, if you said we
would sweep Ginebra in the finals and we would beat them by an average
of that big, I won’t believe that,” said Trillo.
“We built a good foundation and we enjoyed a bit of luck. We took
care of business and went on a roll early. We figured out Air21 and San
Mig Coffee (in the quarters and in the semis) then we faced a Ginebra
team coming out tired,” Trillo also said.
Ginebra coach Alfrancis Chua said the Aces deserved the championship.
Named Best Import before the game, Dozier lived up to the award, coming through with a near triple-double job with 27 points, 20 rebounds and seven assists against Macklin who struggled for just 12 markers and 14 boards.
L.A. Tenorio, Chris Ellis, Mark Caguioa and Jayjay Helterbrand carried the cudgels for the Kings as they tried to survive another do-or-die game, setting the pace in the first three quarters of play.
With a determined stand, the Kings led by seven points in one instance and were still ahead, 72-71, at the end of the third.
The Kings, however, ran out of gas and had no more to offer in the last eight minutes of the game.
From 79-84, the Kings scored only a single free throw courtesy of Jayjay Helterbrand in the last 3:03 of play. They went scoreless the rest of the way.
