MANILA – Alaska Aces banked on another strong showing by Mike Harris as they turned back the depleted San Miguel Beermen 127-119 in the 2018 PBA Governors’ Cup on Saturday night at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City.
The former NBA player finished with double-double 36 points and 23 rebounds while Vic Manuel and Simon Enciso had 20 and 18 points, respectively, for the Aces (5-1), which snagged a share of the second place.
After a seesaw battle in the first three quarters where they held on to a 93-89 lead, the Aces started to pull away early in the third period behind Harris, Jeron Teng and Jayvee Casio for a 103-96 advantage.
San Miguel answered with a huge run to come to as close as 105-107 on a 4-point play by Alex Cabagnot but Alaska created distance anew on triples by Enciso and Chris Banchero and inside hits from Manuel for a 126-114 lead.
Kevin Murphy led with 45 points and 11 rebounds while rookie Christian Standhardinger had double-double 28 points and 13 boards for the skidding Beermen (2-4).
In the first game, NorthPort Batang Pier rode on a huge fourth quarter run to finally barged into the win column with a come-from-behind 118-101 victory over Columbian Dyip.
Trailing 76-64 midway in the third quarter, Stanley Pringle, Sean Anthony and Moala Tautuaa charged with baskets for the Batang Pier in the fourth canto to force a 93-all deadlock.
It was all Batang Pier since then as they suddenly surged to a 104-94 advantage behind 5 straight points by Anthony before bringing the gap further to its widest at 17 points late in the game.
Tautuaa and Pringle finished the game with 26 points each while Anthony added 25 points and nine rebounds for the Batang Pier (1-6). Jerramy King finished with 29 points for the Dyip (0-8)./PN
