Philippine Sports News and Updates

Willie Miller tied a personal tournament best output of 28 points and the Alaska Milk Aces negated Jeff Varem’s triple-double game as they whipped the Barako Bull Energy Boosters, 100-90, in the Motolite PBA Fiesta Conference at the Araneta Coliseum last night.

Miller went 3-of-7 from the three-point area and 9-of-11 from the two-point zone, and also got away with six rebounds, four assists and two steals in his most remarkable performance in the tournament, allowing the Aces to snap a three-game losing skein and get out of the cellar with a third win against six losses.

Varem debuted for Barako Bull with 23 rebounds, 13 points and 10 assists but these were not enough to save the Energy Boosters from reeling to their sixth loss against only two wins.

The Aces checked their slump but coach Tim Cone was still far from satisfied with his team’s showing.

“I’m scratching my head the last couple of weeks. We’re practicing well, but our efforts in practice are not translating into good games. We still struggled tonight,” said Cone.

“It’s perplexing. The efforts are there in practice, but when the lights are on, we couldn’t play the way we should. We have to get the monkey off our backs,” Cone added.

Down in the lower half of the chart with only five games left in the preliminary round, Cone is thankful no team will be eased out after the initial phase of the tourney.

Barangay Ginebra played without an import and stunned Rain or Shine, 94-89, for a third win in eight games in the nightcap.

“They (the Elasto Painters) seemed to relax a bit playing against an import-less rival. That’s human nature. We, on the other hand, worked fluidly without the pressure of winning minus an import,” said Ginebra coach Jong Uichico.

• Philstar
• Philippine Sports Central