San Miguel Beermen Basketball Games Updates

Photo Credit: PBA.ph

The first game between the San Miguel Beermen and the Alaska Aces has the very same resemblance to their fourth quarter breakdown when they battled the Purefoods TJ Giants in the Pre-Season Finals. They started strong but were unable to finish off the opposition in the closing minutes.

Their start was very impressive mounting as much as 19-point lead. And then the painful ending have to be endured again – its another close game loss with the opposing team winning after a fourth quarter rally. This is very disappointing for most of the fans like me.

Do you have any ideas what are happening? Share it with us.

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ALASKA SCORES COME-FROM-BEHIND SQUEAKER
Aces bungle endgame FTs but hang on to win

Source: Philippine Basketball Association (PBA.ph)
Monday, October 6, 2008

Willie Miller couldn’t convert a basket at endgame but grabbed a crucial loose ball as Alaska Milk completed a stirring 85-84 come-from-behind win over San Miguel Beer in the KFC PBA Philippine Cup at the Astrodome Sunday night.

The Aces overcame an early 19-point deficit for a triumphant debut in the all-Filipino tourney where they finished fourth the last time behind the Sta. Lucia Realtors, the Purefoods Giants and the Red Bull Barakos.

Miller muffed two three-point attempts and missed on a drive in the final minute but himself clinched the victory for the Aces as he grabbed the loose ball after two missed free throws by Jeffrey Cariaso with seven seconds left to play.

Desperately fouled by a San Miguel defender with five-tenths of a second left, Sonny Thoss, missing the front-end of his charities, deliberately bungled his second shot for the final count.

“We want to be the top free-throw shooting team this year but I don’t think it’s gonna happen,” laughed Alaska coach Tim Cone.

The Aces shot 46.2 percent from the stripe, with the Beermen far better, hitting at a 93.3-percent clip.

The Aces, however, banked on a torrid field-goal shooting as they came charging back from a 19-point deficit to pull the rug from under the Beermen, who set out as among the top favorites to win the basketball crown.

“I would say it’s a good fightback for us. We’re shell-shocked on how the way Bonbon Custodio and Jonas Villanueva came out. We’d lost huge energy level but we made a big fightback,” said Cone.

The Aces used a swashbuckling run late in the third period to get back into the basketball game then hung tough the rest of the way.

“It’s a kind of game you couldn’t give your new guys the opportunity to get the feel of the basketball game. But I do believe Joe Devance is gonna be a huge factor for us,” said Cone.

Devance, acquired by Alaska from Rain or Shine for Solomon Mercado and Eddie Laure, played 24 minutes, contributing four rebounds, two points, one assist and one steal.

Ervin Sotto and Kelvin dela Pena were kept on the bench.

Larry Fonacier, John Ferriols and Tony dela Cruz teamed up in a 15-2 closing run in the third as Alaska drew within four, 59-63, going into the payoff period.

After playing catch-up basketball from the early goings, the Aces finally regained the lead at 65-63 on back-to-back three-pointers by Jeffrey Cariaso and Fonacier to start the final canto.

San Miguel jumped the gun on Alaska and took the half at 48-39 on a searing offense spiked by a perfect shooting by Villanueva.

The former FEU mainstay was 2-of-2 from the three-point land, 1-of-1 from the two-point zone and 2-of-2 from the stripe to lead the Beermen with 10 points in the first 24 minutes of play.

Villanueva actually put in all those efforts right in the first quarter which ended at 31-16 on San Miguel’s favor.

The Beermen shot well from the field to make up for a poor rebounding in the opening half. (NC)

The scores:
Alaska 85 — Miller 17, Dela Cruz 15, Fonacier 12, Ferriols 12, Hugnatan 11, Tenorio 7, Cariaso 7, Devance 2, Thoss 2.

San Miguel 84 — Custodio 14, Pena 13, Hontiveros 11, Villanueva 10, Seigle 9, Cortez 8, Gonzales 7, Pingris 4, Washington 3, Pennisi 3, Bono 2, Racela 0.

Quarterscores: 16-31, 39-48, 59-63, 85-84

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