Aces rebound, notch win No. 3

The Alaska Aces bounced back from a sorry one-point loss with a 78-70 victory over the Powerade Tigers last night in the 36th PBA Governors’ Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

The Aces leaned on LA Tenorio, who netted 20 points on 3-for-4 shooting from the three-point land, as he redeemed himself from a four-point performance in the team’s 81-82 loss to the Petron Blaze Boosters last Sunday.

The victory pulled the Aces out of the bottom three, jacking up their record to 3-3 (win-loss) to tie the B-Meg Llamados at sixth spot.

The loss, on the other hand, pulled the Tigers down to eighth spot with their fourth defeat in six games.

Teams are looking to avoid the bottom three as tournament formats states that the seven to nine squads after the single round elimination will be booted out.

Jason Forte scored 16 points, Sonny Thoss added 14 and Cyrus Baguio delivered 11 for the Aces, who broke the game wide open in the third with a 20-11 run.

Alaska went into the final half with a slim 40-37 lead.

Gary David scored 22 points, while import Chris Porter added 13 for the Tigers, who failed to get a good follow-up to their impressive 98-96 win over the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters last Sunday.

BOX SCORES:

ALASKA (78)- Tenorio 20, Forte 16, Thoss 14, Baguio 11, Reyes 6, Dela Cruz 4, Borboran 3, Gonzales 2, Cablay 2, Custodio 0, Eman 0.

POWERADE (70)- David 22, Porter 13, Macapagal 7, Cruz 7, Antonio 7, Lanete 6, Quinahan 4, Reyes J. 2, Gonzales 2, Allera 0, Reyes R. 0, Rizada 0, Espino 0.

QUARTERSCORES: 20-17, 40-37, 60-48, 78-70.