Source: PBA.PH
Thu, 12/10/2009 - 00:01 — junior
Alaska Milk overcame a late error by its coach with a career-tying effort by LA Tenorio as it nipped a gritty San Miguel Beer, 122-116, in overtime Wednesday to keep its grip of the top spot in the KFC PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
Tenorio, suiting up versus his former team, sizzled with a career-high-tying 27 points he laced with six rebounds and five assists to bail the Aces out of trouble after coach Tim Cone made a glaring mistake late in regulation.
Up by a point, Filipino-American Joe de Vance canned his first free throw and intentionally missed the second upon the instruction of Cone knowing that the Beerman had only a 30-second timeout that would let them to inbound only from backcourt.
But Cone turned out mistaken as San Miguel actually had a one full timeout remaining, called it and designed a successful alley-oop play on Dondon Hontiveros off an inbound pass by Jonas Villanueva forcing OT.
Thankfully, the Aces bailed Cone out.
“If lost that game I would have taken the blame. I had a bad decision at the end of the game when I told Joe Devance to miss the shot thinking San Miguel had a 30-second timeout left and they can’t call a 30-second timeout from the backcourt,” said Cone.
With the win, Alaska solidified its grip of the top spot with a 10-1 (win-loss) card while sending the Beermen crashing to their first loss after an amazing nine-game streak and third overall in 12 games.
Reynel Hugnatan unloaded a 10-point barrage in the third quarter to help the Aces offset the Beermen’s repeated attempts to regain the lead while keeping the advantage to themselves, 84-83.
The Beermen rained the Aces with threes and raced to a 36-28 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
The combo of Jonas Villanueva, Mick Pennisi, Dondon Hontiveros and Danny Seigle combined for 29 points which they laced with six booming triples that gave San Miguel a good headstart.
It was LA Tenorio’s turn to explode in the second period as he spewed eight of his 16 first half points there.
The heroics of Tenorio, who played with San Miguel in his early years in the pros before he was traded to Alaska, helped his team outscore San Miguel, 29-20 and transform an eight-point deficit in the opening canto to a 57-56 lead at halftime.
Interestingly, the Aces made a killing from the free throw line in the first half as they made 31 trips there, converting an impressive 23 while the Beermen was given 14 foul shots making only nine.
Good thing San Miguel had a superb start. (JV)
The scores:
Alaska 122- Tenorio 27, de Vance 22, dela Cruz 17, Thoss 16, Hugnatan 14, Fonacier 11, Borboran 10, Miller 4, Cariaso 1, Ferriols 0, Cablay 0
San Miguel 116- Santos 24, Villanueva 19, Hontiveros 19, Cortez 12, Pennisi 12, Seigle 11, Miranda 9, Tugade 6, Eman 2, Pena 2, Holper 0, Racela 0
Quarterscores: 28-36; 57-56; 84-83; 108-108; 122-116
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