Beermen hold all the aces

San Miguel Beer continued to brandish a fiery game and simply outclassed the Alaska Aces for a 80-74 win that moved it on the threshold of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup best-of-seven finals at the Astrodome last night.

The Beermen sustained the momentum of their 79-71 win in Game Two to race to a 42-19 lead at halftime, increasing the lead to 27 points at 58-31 before easing up the pressure in the closing minutes for that swashbuckling victory.

That sent San Miguel to a 2-1 lead over Alaska in the best-of-five semifinals series.

Just like Wednesday’s game, tempers nearly flared up but the Beermen kept their poise and court savvy, completing the win that sent them to the brink of a possible fourth straight finals.

Sean Chambers drew a technical foul for extra motion in a mad scramble for the loose ball against Freddie Abuda with 8:04 left in the third quarter while coach Tim Cone was thrown out of the game for technical fouls incurred four minutes later.

If Cone’s gambit in drawing the technicals was to fire up his boys, then he gained some measure of success as the Aces made a run in the fourth quarter, chopping their deficit to what it was in the end.

The Aces now find themselves under extreme pressure of beating the Beermen tomorrow and Wednesday to gain a shot at their first crown since winning the All-Filipino championship last year.

"We came out with a lot of confidence after winning Game Two. We’ve made two in a row and hopefully, we can carry the momentum in Game Four. Nakakatakot bigyan ng buhay ang Alaska. Laging nandiyan iyan always ready to strike back if given the opportunity," said San Miguel coach Jong Uichico.

"Coach (Tim) Cone used his old strategy tonight. He’s been doing that for quite sometime now, getting himself ejected from the game while his team is down with a big deficit. Whether it worked or not, I don’t know. Pero tingin ko medyo naging strict ang mga referees, nag-strict sa amin," Uichico added.

The Beermen played big on both ends of the court with starters Olsen Racela, Dan Seigle, Danny Ildefonso, Dorian Peña and Nate Johnson all coming up with significant numbers.

Racela and Seigle led the team in scoring with 15 points each, Ildefonso tallied 14 points, 11 assists and six rebounds, Johnson logged 13 points and 11 rebounds while Peña added 10 points and five rebounds.

In the first half of play alone, three of them - Johnson, Seigle and Racela - had hit the double-digit mark while no one among the Aces scored more than five points.

The Aces groped for form at the start that they hit at a woeful 18-percent shooting clip in the first half to the Beermen’s 53-percent clip.