Battle between Aces, Beermen down to best of three

Game Friday

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)

7 p.m. – Alaska vs San Miguel

MANILA, Philippines – As the Pope delivers message of peace and harmony, Alaska Milk and San Miguel Beer step up their battle, slugging it out for the crucial 3-2 lead in their PBA Philippine Cup best-of-seven championship showdown at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Friday night.

Deadlocked after four games of a tough series marked by wild momentum swings, the two teams are expected to pour it all in a face-off for the go-ahead win in a playoff that is down to a best-of-three affair.

Game time is at 7 p.m. but the match may be shown on a delayed basis on TV5 to give way to the full coverage of the Papal visit. However, the game can be viewed live on www.sports5.ph and on high definition over Cignal Channel 198.

“It's now a best-of-three, and in a best-of-three, Game One is always important,” said San Miguel coach Leo Austria, expecting an all-out duel after they leveled the series with a dominant 88-70 victory in Game Four Wednesday night.

San Miguel now enjoys the momentum but Alaska is perked up by the fact that it has beaten the Beermen thrice in five meetings in the tourney.

Who would come more prepared and determined in Game Five?

“We have high respect for Alaska and I just hope that we continue to match their energy. We’ve solved their pressing defense. Hopefully, we continue to handle it well till the end of the series,” said Austria.

“We can’t afford to always give them an early big lead. It’s too much,” said Alaska coach Alex Compton.

“As much as San Miguel is a great team and coach Leo is a good coach, I’ve got to do a better job of trying to find a way to get us some shots,” Compton pointed out. “I can’t keep saying ‘defense, defense, defense’ and not get us some shots.”

With their back against the wall, the Beermen asserted themselves against the Aces Wednesday night, dominating practically throughout for the 18-point rout.

“We got beat and you can put triple-exclamation on that,” said Compton in the game where they were held to their second least output in the conference.

San Miguel gave Alaska 48 minutes of hell – no way could the Aces pull off a Houdini act as they did in Game One and Game Three.

“Talagang hindi pwedeng tambak lagi sa una (We really can’t afford to fall way behind early),” said Compton.

The Beermen would not give the Aces the slightest of openings for a possible rally as Alex Cabagnot dished out his worthiest game in his San Miguel comeback and all SMB core players put in significant contributions.

Junemar Fajardo delivered only in the first half and San Miguel found no problem as Ronald Tubid, Chris Lutz, Marcio Lassiter and Arwind Santos took the cudgels.

For Alaska, Calvin Abueva was the lone bright spot with his game-high 22-point output.

No other Alaska player scored in double figures with Jvee Casio virtually absent with 0-of-2 field clip in 19 minutes of action.

It turned out Casio played with a bum stomach in the contest.