Wednesday Massacre: Aces arrest skid, vent ire on Tigers

Tim Cone and his Alaska Aces are tired of losing. On Wednesday night, the reigning Fiesta Conference champions rediscovered their old form to arrest an alarming skid. The Aces jumped the gun on the Powerade Tigers and never looked back in hammering out a convincing 96-67 win in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum. Still licking the wounds of four straight losses they suffered, the Aces played with a sense of urgency and showed it as early as the first period when they unloaded 30 points. The Aces posted their first sizeable lead at 34-24 early in the second quarter, then padded it to a whopping 27-point spread, 56-29, at the end of the first half. Cyrus Baguio finished with 17 points and five steals while Joe Devance added 16 markers to go along with three boards. LA Tenorio contributed 15 points, five rebounds and six assists. ‘’Sana eto na yung start ng magandang laro namin. Kasi four-game losing streak kami kaya medyo mababa yung confidence namin. Buti na lang maganda nilaro ngayon. We just need to retain it and remain aggressive in our next games,’’ said Tenorio. Cone expected his wards to come out aggressive, owing to the importance of their remaining matches. ‘’I guess we were due. We came out and played a really good game and sustained it throughout. We haven’t been able to respond well through adversity the past few games and I am glad we responded well tonight,’’ said Cone. ‘’We jumped on them as the guys played very well. They (Powerade) also had an off-night shooting and that helped, too. LA (Tenorio) played tremendously for us. He set the tone very well. I thought that was the key for us.’’ Bonbon Custodio added 11 points and five rebounds off the bench. With the win, Alaska got back on track and evened its slate to 4-4 in a tie with its victim. The Aces posted their biggest lead at 37 points, 79-42, with 44.7 seconds left in the third, the highest for any team this season. Rob Reyes and Ren-Ren Ritualo topscored with 12 points each for the Tigers, who dropped their second straight game. - KY, RCJ, GMANews.TV