Alaska vs San Miguel - 8-6-10 ( Finals - Game 1 ) Part 2

LA Tenorio stars as Aces trip Beermen in Game 1
06 Aug 2010
The Alaska Aces aren't through yet with their stunning act in the PBA Fiesta Cup.

On Friday night, the Aces were at it again and brought down defending champion San Miguel Beer in an 89-83 Game 1 upset of their best-of-seven title series at the Araneta Coliseum.

Diamon Simpson, who narrowly lost the Best Import award to Gabe Freeman, was a terror at both ends of the floor for the Aces scoring 28 points and grabbing 21 rebounds.

But it was L.A. Tenorio who delivered the two dagger baskets - both from downtown - that finally took the life out of the mighty Beermen.

His first three-pointer, with three minutes left in the tightly-fought, low scoring contest, ignited an 8-0 closing run that shattered the game's final deadlock and pushed the Aces to a 79-76 advantage.

Another booming trey by the smart Alaska playmaker with 1:44 to go capped that searing blitz and gave the Aces a comfortable 84-76 lead.

Tenorio, runner-up to Jay Washington in the race for the Best Player of the Conference award, finished with 13 points, just behind the 14 of both Joe DeVance and Cyrus Baguio.

He also had eight assists in the Aces' third straight key win, including Alaska's last two games against Talk 'N Text in the semifinals.

Game 2 of the series is on Sunday also at the Big Dome.

"I knew we got to a sluggish start. I knew that would happen to us, but that run in the second quarter convinced us that we can play this game, too. We're a confident team. This team right now is not the same team in the eliminations. We feel we're not the team that placed fourth in the eliminations," said Alaska coach Tim Cone.

With only a day's rest after eliminating top seeded Talk 'N Text in a seven-game semifinal series, the Aces understandably came out flat in Game 1 against the Beermen and fell by as many as 15-4 four minutes into the match.

But once it settled down and got its half-court game going, there was no way Alaska would be denied of the win.

"We could have done better," said SMB coach Tanquingcen. "We shot ourselves in the foot by turning the ball over a lot of times. They (Aces) got the shot that they want. We didn't get the shot that we want."

Freeman poured in 37 points and had 16 rebounds, but was stymied shortly after being whistled for his fifth personal foul with 3:46 left in the third period and the Beermen trailing, 61-66.

He returned with 6:49 to play and Alaska still ahead, 72-67.

San Miguel Beer committed 20 turnovers, which was translated by Alaska to 17 points, wasting its 58-49 edge in rebounds.

Freeman scored SMB's last seven points, including the one that pulled them to within 84-79.

But DeVance scored underneath off a perfect dish by Simpson to make it 86-79, before the Beermen finally threw in the towel when Freeman asked to be relieved after hobbling back to the bench holding his knee.

Washington was the lone SMB player who played consistently with 16 points.

Arwind Santos struggled for seven points on 3-of-12 field goal shooting although he had 10 rebounds while Dondon Hontiveros went scoreless in the second and third quarters and wound up with only eight points. - JVP, GMANews.TV


Scores:
Alaska 89 - Simpson 28, DeVance 14, Baguio 14, Tenorio 13, Hugnatan 8, Dela Cruz 7, Fonacier 5, Borboran 0, Eman 0.

San Miguel 83 - Freeman 37, Washington 16, Yeo 9, Hontiveros 8, Santos 7, Cabagnot 2, Ildefonso 2, Pena 2, Villanueva 0, Tugade 0, Racela 0, Seigle 0.

Quarters scores: 19-25, 48-42, 66-61, 89-83.

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[loy829]

San Miguel is still the Best!