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Aces sign De la Cruz, Hugnatan
Source : Staff   
Wednesday, 13 August 2008 13:57

THE 2007 Philippine Basketball Association Fiesta Conference champion Alaska Aces showed that they want to bounce back from an early exit this conference by signing up key players Reynel Hugnatan and Tony de la Cruz to two-year contracts and are close to signing John Ferriols.

Alaska management was mum on the terms of the pact but sources within the PBA said De la Cruz got the maximum term of P8.4 million for two years while Hugnatan got slightly less at P8.1 million.

The Aces, who were eliminated early this conference, plan to bounce back this coming PBA All-Filipino Conference but do not see any players in the coming draft on Aug. 30 who could immediately improve their team.

“Our priority is to keep the team intact,” said Alaska chief operating officer Wilfred Steven Uytengsu. “We will be drafting fifth in the coming draft which everybody thinks will be a thin draft. We do not see any players that we could draft, who could make an immediate impact with the team.”

Alaska players with live contracts include team captain Jeff Cariaso, Willie Miller, Sonny Thoss, JR Quiñahan, Larry Fonacier and LA Tenorio.

Other players hoping to get offers for renewal are Eddie Laure, Jun Cabatu, Aaron Aban, Rensy Bajar, Ariel Capus and Poch Juinio.

Meanwhile, the Air21 Express won’t be satisfied with anything less than their first-ever PBA crown as they gun for a 3-1 lead against the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings, at 7 p.m., at the Araneta Coliseum today.

While Ginebra seems to be on a nosedive after having its 13-game win streak snapped, the Express keep finding players who will step up to lead them to victory.

The Express’ latest hero is former slam-dunk champion KG Canaleta who drained five-of-five attempts from 3-point distance to power the Express to a 97-87 victory over the Gin Kings and a 2-1 lead.

Gary David scored a game-high 25 points and Steven Thomas had a 20-20 game, but it was Canaleta who scored 12 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter who powered Air21 to a follow-up victory to its 124-90 Game 2 win.

In contrast, the Gin Kings seem to be jinxed with players going down with injuries at the worst possible time. The latest casualty is playmaker Jayjay Helterbrand who limped out of Game 2 with a left hamstring injury.

Before that, Ronald Tubid dislocated his left ankle when he landed on Alaska team captain Jeff Cariaso’s foot during the tail-end of the eliminations. And even before that, Eric Menk, Mark Caguioa, Paul Artadi and Rafi Reavis were in and out of sickbay with niggling injuries.
 
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