On even ground (?)

Ready to rumble!

The "other" PBA Philippine Cup semifinals pairing of the three-peat seeking Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters versus the Alaska Aces was supposed to be a yawner. Save for some fireworks brought about by rookie Calvin Abueva, the Texters are expected to just run right through the Aces and move on to the Finals.

The Aces made a case for themselves in yesterday's, ugly, grind-it-out game.

While we're still sticking to the Texters winning the series, it's just highly entertaining to see the Aces fighting tooth and nail against the league's best team for the last two-three (even more) years. This, from an Aces team that last season looked lost and ready to close shop after the unceremonious divorce with long time coach Tim Cone (who's part of the other semifinals pairing between San Mig Coffee and Rain or Shine).
You have to give credit where it's due and young coach Luigi Trillo and his high-pedigree platoon of assistant coaches led by Louie Alas, Topex Robinson and under-the-radar Alex Compton.

You cold look at the game two ways: that the Aces fought, battled, clawed their way to a 66-65 loss OR that the Texters, a recently molded defensive team (under "rookie" head coach Norman Black, was in control save for a few lapses in the 3rd and 4th quarter that gave the Aces the lead.

We're going with a little of both.

In the first half, the Aces were settling for too many mid-range shots. And though the game was tight, it was low scoring and awful to watch. It was helter-skelter basketball that mimicked street tournaments. Too much wasted movement on the Aces' part, while the Texters were busy trying to sleep the fans to death by working the shot clock.

Coach Norman knew that the Aces wanted to run, and though they have the tools to fight fire with fire, he opted to have his Texters slow the tempo. This worked to their advantage early because lead guard Jayson Castro proved to be too big, too strong and too quick for any of his Aces' counterparts JVee Casio, RJ Jazul and even Cyrus Baguio. We'd like to see how Raffy Reyes will do against Castro, but we're afraid that if Castro pulverizes Reyes, the young ex-Warrior might never recover from the ass-whooping.

Then there's the "incredible" Abueva. Hauling down 17 rebounds versus the Texters' frontline of Ranidel de Ocampo, Ali Peek and Harvey Carey-- that's just a sight to behold and not taken for granted. Of course, "The Beast" has been a flopping a lot as of late (probably under coach's instructions to "sell" hits so that the referees would give him the calls), but there's a lot to be said about a 6"1 skinny power forward dominating the PBA.

For the Aces to win, they need to turn it up. Shoot more, think less. The Triangle Offense, which plays to the Texters' defensive sets, should be put in the back burner for now. If they go small, they have an advantage because it would force de Ocampo to play center while Kelly Williams plays power forward. Between Williams and Abueva, Abueva's the more tenacious rebounder and even polished one-on-one scorer. Sonny Thoss will also have his way with de Ocampo in terms of rebounding (and scoring, because RdO's not really a lockdown post defender).

Coach Luigi also needs to spread the floor and run some screens for his star Baguio, they're not going to win this series if Baguio's not putting up the numbers. He has been their most consistent guy so far this Philippine Cup, something like a skinny, acrobatic "old" Jojo Lastimosa.

Casio needs to take it to Castro, we're not asking the ex-SMART Gilas star to call for isolations, but he needs to start jacking up threes and force Castro to commit on defense. This will help open things up inside (Jazul was doing a better job at this yesterday but ran out of gas trying to chase Castro on the other end).

The Aces needs to run to win, the Texters just needs to take care of business and not sleep walk (as they've alarmingly done the last two games now).

On a side note, that Ryan Reyes three to win the game with 14 seconds left was cold blooded.