Philippine Sports News and Updates

Alaska drew first blood in its best-of-seven semifinal series against Sta. Lucia Realty after securing a 92-76 win Wednesday night in the KFC-PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

Despite a two-point output from main man Willie Miller in the first half, the Aces managed to survive that stage before catching fire in the final period. Alaska now has a 1-0 lead over defending champion Sta. Lucia.

"Certainly it was an ugly first half for us as we committed 16 turnovers," said Alaska mentor Tim Cone as his wards trailed 38-41. "But our defense kept us in the game."

Miller struggled offensively, shooting just 5-of-18 from the floor to finish with 14 points but he grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out eight assists to offset his quiet offensive game and six turnovers.

"He (Miller) came out in the third quarter with four assists and that started our offense going," said Cone, who drew a team-high 17 points from Joe Devance.

"That's why he's so valuable to us. You sit down with him and he gets it right. But if we can get things done without Willie, I think that's a bonus for us."

The game was still close when the Realtors tied the game for the last time at 69-all with 10:29 left in the game before Alaska unloaded a decisive 16-4 run to break the game wide open, 85-73, 3:48 left in the game.

From there, Sta. Lucia could not get back its rhythm back and dropped another series opener against the Aces, just like in their semifinal encounter last season in the same tournament.