Beermen reach final

ANTIPOLO — Reigning titlist San Miguel Beer took the best old champion Alaska Milk could dish out in their side of the sudden-death to hack out an emphatic 83-71 win that kept it on track for another crack at the league record book last night.

Pushed to the limit, the Beermen bucked the pressure, showing class and character in disposing of the Aces to get a shot at a third straight PBA Commissioner’s Cup championship to the delight of their huge throng at the jampacked Ynares Sports Center here.

The eight men fielded in by coach Jong Uichico pulled one big game together as they advanced to the best-of-seven finals against the winner of the other Final Four matchup pitting Purefoods and Red Bull. The title playoff begins Sunday.

"Alaska gave us a big fight in this series but we did what we had to do. We picked up the challenge," said Uichico as his Beermen stayed in hunt for a possible fourth straight crown and a grandslam championship this season.

Uichico said they would have a tough duel in the title series although he felt his players would be well motivated to sustain a winning tradition in the league.

"Pride na ang nakataya ngayon sa amin. We know that everybody now wants to beat San Miguel. We have to take that as a challenge," said Uichico, under whose rein the Beermen have gone 5-of-5 in the finals thus far.

Versus Alaska, Uichico thought playing good defense would make the big difference in San Miguel final bid in their best-of-five showdown. Last night, the Beermen did employ an efficient defense but had to lean on the fiery offensive games by Dan Seigle, Nate Johnson, Danny Ildefonso and Olsen Racela.

Working well on both ends of the court, the Beermen dominated the Aces, taking the half at 40-31 and leading by as many as 18 points, 67-49, early in the fourth quarter.

"San Miguel came out doing things they’d never done in the series. They made all the big hustle plays. They came out more prepared for this game," said Alaska coach Tim Cone.

Despite coming out short against San Miguel, Cone, however, thought his team is moving forward. He said: "We progressed from our first conference showing (fifth place). Hopefully, we can make another step in the third conference."

The Aces lost the knockout game with Sean Chambers struggling for only nine points on 4-of-13 shooting from the field.

Cone rotated only six players in the first half but, obviously, they couldn’t get the job done as they played catch-up from the start.

With John Arigo scoring nine points coming off the bench in the fourth quarter, the Aces pulled within 13 points at 67-70 with still a little over three minutes left in the clock. The Aces, however, couldn’t build up the momentum as Kenneth Duremdes muffed a drive against Seigle then Chambers committed an offensive foul against Johnson in their next possessions.

Seigle settled the outcome of the game for good on a triple, making it 81-67 with time down to 1:44.