Ascof snaps slide, turns back AddMix

Drawing strength from their veterans, Ascof Lagundi ended its two-game skid on Thursday with an 80-76 victory over AddMix that brought them back into contention in the 2010 PBL PG Flex-Erase Placenta Cup at The Arena in San Juan City. Sean Co, JR Gerilla and Edwin Asoro produced numbers expected from them to back up rookie Bam Gamalinda as the Cough Busters tied AddMix with a 1-2 record.

"It’s tough for us this conference because we’re a new team with a lot of new guys. It’s also tough playing especially coming from two losses because the attitude gets in the way. But the key here is that they faced this game big and still stuck with each other," said coach Carlo Tan. Gamalinda ably followed-up his 17-point performance in Ascof’s loss to Cobra last week by scoring 20 markers while Co added 16 more including a three-point play off rookie forward Gio Ciriacruz to put the Cough Busters ahead, 77-76, with 37.2 ticks left in the game. The 6-foot-6 Gerilla finished with 11 points and 17 rebounds while Asoro, who played for multi-titled Harbour Centre, chipped in 11 markers. The Transformers, who failed to ride on the momentum of their first win against Pharex, lost composure in the end game after main man Alain Maliksi fouled out just seconds before the final two-minute mark of the tightly-fought contest. Maliksi finished with 22 points, 10 in the fourth period to help the Leo Austria-coached team of climbing back from a 62-51 deficit. Lisztian Amparado’s lay-up even allowed AddMix to momentarily taste the lead, 76-74, with 1:46 remaining. But Co, who earlier buried a three-pointer to tie the count for and last time at 74, scored on a putback. In the process, he drew a foul from Ciriacruz. After a botched offensive play by AddMix, Gerilla made two more free throws after that before the Cough Busters secured their first win as Rob Labagala stole a poor inbound pass by Ciriacruz to Amparado. Labagala was fouled by Amparado and made a split for the final count. "I just hope to see this team get better. Our next game will be against sister team Pharex which is playing much better than us. But we will give our best for that game," added Tan. – GMANews.TV