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Aces dump Texters, set up winner-take-all Game 7
The Alaska Aces just wouldn’t allow Chot Reyes, the Talk `N Text coach, to celebrate his birthday at their own expense. Playing with more focus and energy, the Aces thrashed the Tropang Texters, 94-83, to forge a deciding seventh game in their PBA Fiesta Cup semifinal series. Alaska played without starting big man Sonny Thoss, who suffered a second-degree sprained left ankle. His absence hardly bothered the Aces, who led by as many as 18 and then quelled a late rally by the top-seeded team, whose mentor was celebrating his 47th birthday Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum. “We came out with a lot of energy. We established a tone. That kind of surprised them. It really was a good game for us in terms of execution and playing both sides of the court," said Alaska coach Tim Cone after the Game 6 win. The best-of-seven series is now tied at 3-game apiece, with the deciding match set on Wednesday also at the Big Dome and marking the third time the two teams are squaring off in a Game 7. Reyes obviously was disappointed with yet another failure of his team to close out a game. “There’s a reason why we can’t win a series when we’re up 3-2. And it’s because we don’t know how to close out games," said a forlorn Reyes. “They basically outhustled us. The worst part of the loss is that we got outworked." The Tropang Texters’ loss was made even worst with the breakdown of key players Mac-Mac Cardona and Ranidel de Ocampo. Scoreless in Game 5, Cardona again struggled from the floor by finishing with only two points on 1-of-7 shooting. De Ocampo for his part, had seven and missed all of his attempts from the three-point area and ended up 2-of-10 overall from the field. Diamon Simpson had another big game for the Aces with 21 points and 18 rebounds while Joe Devance had 19. Cyrus Baguio rebounded from a measly six-point showing the last time by contributing 14 points, nine rebounds and a key steal off Jimmy Alapag. He completed the heist with a breakaway basket that kept the rallying Tropang Texters at bay in the final two minutes. Mark Borboran came off the bench and scored eight points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field aside from having two rebounds in 18 minutes. The Aces led 30-12 in the first half, but hardly panicked when the Tropang Texters came to within 59-57 on a basket by Cardona in the third period.
