Rain or Shine, Alaska bolster outright semifinal campaigns
San Miguel’s top center June Mar Fajardo escapes from the double-teaming defense of Alaska’s Chris Banchero and Sonny Thoss (partly hidden) in last night’s main game of the 41st PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Rain or Shine Elasto Painters and the Alaska Aces came away with critical wins to boost their bids for an outright semifinal berth in the 41st PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum last night.
The Elasto Painters withstood a gallant stand by the eliminated but hard-fighting Meralco Bolts, 97-87, while the Aces survived a dogfight against the defending champions San Miguel Beermen to post a 103-97 victory.
With the hard-earned wins, Rain or Shine and Alaska now tote similar 8-2 (win-loss) records, good for a two-way at second place.
San Miguel, who saw its seven-game win streak snapped, finished its elimination round campaign with nine wins and two losses.
Rain or Shine and Alaska can force a triple at the No. 1 spot if they hurdle the final elimination-round assignments against the NLEX Road Warriors and Barako Bull Energy, respectively.
Should a triple-tie occur among the three teams, Rain or Shine, owing to its superior quotient, will get the No. 1 seeding and the first of two outright seats.
Alaska and San Miguel will then duke it out in a playoff for the second automatic seat.
Raymond Almazan keyed the big Rain or Shine win by tallying career-highs of 21 points and 17 rebounds.
Rain or Shine lefty gunner Jeff Chan tallied a conference-best 24 points.
Jarred Dillinger finished with 15 points for the Bolts, who ended their dismal campaign with 10 defeats against a solitary win.
Alaska, on the other hand, had five players scoring double figures.
Sonny Thoss scored 18 points, Calvin Abueva tallied 17 points, 15 rebounds and five assists, Chris Banchero wound up with 17 points, while Vic Manuel and Cyrus Baguio chipped in 12 and 10 markers, respectively.
Alaska’s balanced attack allowed them to offset the monstrous performance of Cebuano center June Mar Fajardo, who fired a career-high 43 points and grabbed 20 rebounds.
Alex Cabagnot and Arwind Santos were the only other Beermen to score in twin digits with 19 and 10, respectively.
Alaska and San Miguel figured in a tight contest which served as a rematch of last year’s Philippine Cup Finals won by the latter.
Alaska threatened to blow out San Miguel when it erected a 79-67 lead at the 10:10 mark of the fourth period.
With Fajardo imposing his will in the shaded lane, the Beermen clawed their way back into the game that saw them seizing the lead, 94-93, on a jumper by Chris Lutz in the final 1:22.
Alaska quickly regained the lead, 95-94, on a perfect ball movement with JVee Casio finding an open Manuel, who completed a rocking one-handed dunk.
San Miguel came out empty in the next play with Santos missing two successive shots.
Fouled while collaring a defensive rebound, Abueva nailed two free throws as Alaska padded its lead to 97-94 with 49.8 ticks to go.
San Miguel again failed to convert in the ensuing play and Casio put the game away by dropping two gift shots with 33.1 seconds left.
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