(CNN Philippines) — The Alaska Aces exploited their size advantage to hammer out a 108-99 victory over a short-handed Barangay Ginebra San Miguel in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup Friday (May 8) at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.
Import Romeo Travis threw his weight around in the absence of Ginebra big men Greg Slaughter and Japeth Aguilar, who are nursing injuries and expected to be shelved also in their next outing.
Travis finished with 34 points and 16 rebounds for the Aces, who overcame a 50-point explosion of Ginebra import Orlando Johnson.
Playing against a team with a virtually slim frontline, Alaska raced off to a scintillating 23-5 lead in the opening salvo and kept its foot on the gas the rest of the way.
But Alaska coach Alex Compton thought it was their patented pressure defense that put them on top the entire way.
“Our defense was pretty tremendous,” said Alaska coach Alex Compton moments after their conquest of Ginebra.
The Aces kept the Gin Kings in rut early in the second period by taking a commanding 39-17 spread, before Johnson’s 18-point outburst helped Ginebra trim the gap to nine heading into halftime, 54-45.
“They forced us to make some bad decisions,” Compton said.
Ginebra tried to conjure magic with Johnson leading a surge that sliced the lead to just two at the 8:37 mark of the third period, 58-60.
But Alaska had a riposte.
The Aces built a 12-point cushion on Travis’ free throws to restore order, 92-80.
Resilient, the Gin Kings went in overdrive anew but the brief spurt only got them to as close as 105-99.
