Alaska holds all aces

Sta. Lucia coach Norman Black turned a year older and looked forward to gifting himself with a win over Alaska Milk last night. But coach Tim Cone and his Alaska Aces had another thing in mind.

The Aces redeemed themselves from a poor performance versus the Red Bull Thunder the last time out, pulling one big game in smothering the Realtors, 87-80, to move a win short of the crucial twice-to-beat privilege in the PBA Governors Cup quarterfinals at the Araneta Coliseum.

The Aces played well on both ends of the court, spoiling not only Black’s birthday but also the debut of Isaac Fontaine for Sta. Lucia, thus ousting the Realtors in the fight for a place in the Magic Four.

Kenneth Duremdes and Sean Chambers came up with solid all-round performances, nearly completing a triple-double job while the rest of the Aces helped big on defense as they held the Sta. Lucia locals to only 41 points on the night their coach turned 43.

Duremdes tallied 21 points, eight rebounds and seven assists while Chambers logged 20 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, leading the Aces to their fifth win in eight outings.

"That was huge coming from a poor performance against Red Bull. We played great defense and had full focus on the game. We kind of kept our motor running all night," said Cone.

"That’s how I like my team play always, but we’ve been having our motor running on and off lately. We turned it on tonight and I hope we do it again in our last game so we can guarantee ourselves of the twice-to-beat," he added.

Losing their hopes for the crucial quarters incentive were the Realtors as they suffered their third straight defeat despite the 39-point game of Fontaine – their new import who replaced Joe Temple. The team fell to 3-4.

Fontaine dished out a respectable showing but the Realtors couldn’t keep pace with the Aces with little help from the locals.

Sta. Lucia trailed by 12, 30-42, at the half and fell behind by as many as 21 points as starters Dennis Espino and Paolo Mendoza sat out the final half after sustaining injuries early on.

The Aces shot 49 percent from the field while holding the Realtors to a 35-percent clip.

"Kenneth (Duremdes) went on a roll and Johnny (Abarientos) held down all his Sta. Lucia counterparts. If both come out that way, we’re tough to beat," said Cone.