Tournament favorite Blaze Boosters trounce Alaska Aces to win Sinulog Cup 2103 crown
The Petron Blaze Booster gained much momentum heading to the opening of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup after capturing the championship of the 2013 Sinulog Cup with a resounding, 100-93 win over the Alaska Aces last night before scores of rabid Cebuano basketball fans who packed the Cebu Coliseum.
Petron import Renaldo Balkman continued to impress everyone by finishing with a game-high 31 points while Ronald Tubid added 14. Big man Dorian Peña chipped in 11 markers.
The matchup between the two erstwhile undefeated teams proved to be both emotional and testy, but none more so in the third quarter, when tempers flared not just between the players but also between the coaches of the opposing squads.
Alaska’s prized rookie Calvin Abueva got into tussles with Petron’s Jay Washington and Tubid, even as the Aces’ assistant coach Louie Alas nearly came to blows with the Boosters’ own assistant Biboy Ravanes over an alleged obscene gesture made towards Petron import Renaldo Balkman.
It was then that the Boosters took their play to the next level behind the energetic game of the newly-acquired Tubid.
The Iloilo-native was a wildcard that Petron played to its advantage as the fiery guard scored 11 of his 14 points in that stretch, including nine in a pivotal 14-3 run, which he punctuated by a step-back three-pointer over Abueva. That put Petron on top, 77-65, heading to the final quarter.
Petron extended its lead to a high of 13, 80-67, after Peña completed a three-point play at the onset of the fourth stanza.
But Alaska steadily made its way back behind Abueva, who, along with import Robert Dozier, sparked a fightback.
A basket by Abueva and two freethrows by JV Casio sliced the deficit down to five, 86-91, but was momentarily stopped by Balkman, whose thunderous slam with 2:09 left upped the lead to seven.
Alaska’s Cyrus Baguio then swished a trey to put them to within four, 89-93, but that was all she wrote as Washington made a straight-away three-pointer and Balkman added a three-point play to put the Aces away, 99-89, with 42.9 seconds left in the game.
The Aces got 30 from Dozier while Abueva and Baguio finished with 17 and 15 markers , respectively.
In the first game, the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings ended their southern trip with a win as they chalked up an 89-86 victory over the hosts M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala-Cebu Niños.
Import Herbert Hill was clutch down the stretch as he scored the team’s final eight points, including the go-ahead basket and the insurance freethrows with just seconds left in the contest.
Hill finished with a game-high 25 points as Ginebra avoided a winless stint in this invitational tournament.
The Niños, however, finished without a single victory.
