With all eyes focused on Tim Cone and Alaska, Josh Urbiztondo grabbed the spotlight during the crucial moments of the game.
The deadshot guard came off the bench to drill all 12 of his points from beyond the arc and sparked the B-MEG Llamados to an 81-75 triumph over the Aces in the PBA Philippine Cup at the SMART-Araneta Colisuem on Wednesday.
With Urbiztondo providing the spark, Kerby Raymundo made sure they put the game away.
Raymundo had a get-away move against Sonny Thoss and scored on a driving layupto put the Llamados up by four, 79-75, with 20 seconds to go. The basket ended a string of seven unanswered points by the hard-charging Aces, capped by an LA Tenorio bucket.
In the Aces’ final play, Urbiztondo challenged a three-point attempt by Tenorio that missed, allowing Cone to emerge with an emotional victory over his former squad.
“The pressure was tremendous tonight. I felt the pressure and I’m sure, Joel felt the pressure, too. For a while I had visions of a 35-point blowout loss,” said Cone. “But we were lucky we were down by only two at halftime, then James (Yap) got his game going, PJ Simon got his rhythm as well as Josh and Kerby. It was a tough, tough win for us. We wanted to treat this as a regular game, but we really can’t avoid it, especially when you step inside the court.
In between the tension surrounding Cone, his counterpart Joel Banal and the entire Alaska organization, Urbiztondo slipped under the radar to post a big game. His last trey of the game shoved the Llamados to their biggest lead, 75-68, 3:05 remaining after being down by as much as 15 points in the first half.
The scores:
B-Meg (81) – Yap 20, Urbiztondo 12, Raymundo 12, Simon 11, Devance 10, Reavis 8, Pingris 6, Ferriols 2, Barroca 0, Acuna 0, Maierhofer 0, Yap 0.
Alaska (75) – Thoss 18, Reyes 15, Tenorio 11, Baguio 10, Dela Cruz 9, Baracael 4, Custodio 4, Eman 3, Bugia 1, Cablay 0.
Quarterscores: 9-21; 35-37; 61-56; 81-75.
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