Aces down Beermen, prevent sweep

The Alaska Aces buried the San Miguel Beermen early and never looked back, scoring a 125-104 win on Friday to prevent a sweep of their 2018 PBA Commissioner’s Cup best-of-five series.

The Aces shot a high 49 percent, while limiting San Miguel to just 45 percent. Alaska also had 21 more possessions, thanks to a 20-9 advantage in turnovers and a 59-47 edge on rebounds. Coach Alex Compton’s squad converted on San Miguel’s 20 turnovers, pulling 25 points from the Beermen’s miscues.

Save for brief moments in the first and second period, Alaska led all the way, stretching it to 23 points at one point.

Diamon Simpson and Jayvee Casio paced the starters with 21 and 15 points, respectively. It was Alaska’s bench that made the difference, though, with Vic Manuel scoring 24 and Simon Enciso hitting 10. Ping Exciminiano and Noy Baclao tallied nine apiece, while Jake Pascual and Abel Galliguez posted seven points each.

Best player of the game: Vic Manuel with 24 points and 6 rebounds. #WeArePBA pic.twitter.com/6vF7J1vwop

— PBA (@pbaconnect) July 20, 2018

The usually high-scoring first five of San Miguel did deliver, but aside from Renaldo Balkman and June Mar Fajardo’s combined 46 points, the trio of Chriss Ross, Marcio Lassiter, and Alex Cabagnot failed to post double digit outputs. Ross and Lassiter had nine apiece, while Cabagnot scored just eight. The three combined for a paltry 8 for 25 clip from the field.

Christian Stanhardinger and Brian Heruela led the bench with 10 and eight points, respectively, while Arwind Santos was limited to three points—all off free throws—after going 0 of 7 on the floor. —KG, GMA News