ALASKA snapped its slide while stopping erstwhile streaking Rain or Shine dead on its tracks with a 74-48 victory yesterday in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.
Rodney Brondial had 13 points while Abu Tratter had 12 markers and 13 rebounds as Aces halted their two-game losing skein and improved their record to an even 2-2 even with a sub-par performance.
Worse off was Rain or Shine, which saw its unbeaten start cut short at three, all because it made just 18 of 86 shots and committed 17 turnovers.
Typifying the Elasto Painters’ woes were their main men, Rey Nambatac and Javee Mocon.
Nambatac notched just five points on a 2-of-14 clip while Mocon went scoreless despite 11 tries.
Adrian Wong’s nine points were enough to lead Rain or Shine, which emerged with its lowest output in franchise history and missed by just a point tying the league’s all-time worst score.
San Miguel Beer continued its rise in the standings with a 99-80 shellacking of Blackwater in the day’s first game.
June Mar Fajardo and Arwind Santos churned out double-doubles in leading the Beermen’s charge that went full steam from the third quarter on and resulted in their third straight win in four games.
In his best game in the conference so far, Fajardo scored 16 points and hauled down 11 rebounds while Santos, hero in SMB’s 88-86 squeaker over NorthPort just last Sunday, collected 10 and 12 along with five assists.
Simon Enciso scattered a game-high 25 points anchored on seven three-pointers, but Blackwater could not gain any momentum from a fiery second quarter surge and thus absorbed a fourth loss in as many starts that pushed it deeper in the cellar.
Despite his team posting as much as two 25-point spreads in the fourth quarter before cruising to the wire-to-wire victory, SMB coach Leo Austria maintained fashioning the win was not as easy as it looked.
“We knew from the start this will not be an easy game for us. Nakita naman sa first half,” said Austria, referring to the instance when his team’s 12-point lead got easily razed by the Bossing.
“I know Blackwater is really trying hard to exert effort and they showed it this afternoon,” added Austria. “Good thing our veterans stepped up.”
Foremost among those was Alex Cabagnot, who laced his 12-point performance with nine in the third period that stretched SMB’s lead from 39-38 at halftime to as much as 69-51.
