KIA’S giant-slaying ways continued on Tuesday with the Carnival beating Philippine Cup runner-up Alaska,103-89, this time to boost their bid for quarterfinals of the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Import Peter John Ramos delivered another monster effort for the Carnival with a rare 30-30 game, while the locals provided the needed support to book their fourth win in nine games and move closer to a quarterfinal ticket.
The Aces were the latest victims of the Kia onslaught this conference. The Carnival have earlier slain San Miguel, Purefoods and Talk ’N Text, the last three All-Filipino conference champions in the league.
The seven-foot-four Ramos finished with 36 points and 33 rebounds two days after getting an invitation from Kia playing-coach Manny Pacquiao to watch the latter’s mega fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Las Vegas on May 3.
“The players were challenged to play hard because we played flat the last time,” said Kia Assistant Coach Chito Victolero, referring to their 104-115 loss to Blackwater last Saturday. “Our goal is to get to the playoffs but I told the players to focus game to game.”
The loss was the third in a row for Alaska, which slid to 2-5 won-lost. They are now 0-3 with import Damion James, who replaced DJ Covington.
With Ramos wreaking havoc in the shaded lane, the Carnival turned a slim 53-49 halftime lead into a 77-67 spread entering the final quarter.
Alaska, behind James, trimmed the lead to 76-80, but LA Revilla anchored a crucial 16-5 exchange to push Kia to 96-81 with 4:06 remaining.
Revilla had two brilliant plays in that stretch—a no-look one-handed pass to Reil Cervantes for an undergoal reverse and stole off Calvin Abueva for an uncontested lay-up.
Karl Dehesa added 14 points for the Carnival while JR Cawaling and Revilla contributed 13 and 10 markers, respectively.
James paced the undermanned Aces with 25 points. Alaska played without Dondon Hontiveros because of an ankle sprain and lost top guard JVee Casio early in the game due to a swollen nose incurred by Revilla.
Image credits: PBA Image