MANILA — With fire in their bellies after a humbling first-game loss against the upstart GlobalPort Batang Pier, the Alaska Aces torched the Rain or Shine (ROS) E-Painters, 94-79, Wednesday night in the PBA Governors' Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena. The Aces notched their first victory in the conference largely through the exploits of their energetic import Wendell McKines, who finished with 30 points and 13 rebounds. While McKines dominated the paint on both ends of the court, JVee Casio ruled the perimeter, knocking down 21 points, mostly on three-pointers. Cyrus Baguio and RJ Jazul added 12 and 10 points respectively. The Aces erected a 12-point lead at halftime and cruised to an unexpected easy win against the tough E-Painters who missed their services of their key playmaker Paul Lee, last season's Rookie of the Year, who was down with a sprained right ankle. Alaska head coach Luigi Trillo expressed surprise at the anemic game the E-Painters played. “We didn't expect Rain or Shine to play like this since they were coming off a loss to Petron. I thought we'll be in for a battle, but we made a couple of shots from the outside early, then got some help from Wendell in the end,” said Trillo, who guided Alaska to the Commissioner's Cup championship early this year. Import Arizona Reid tried to carry the fight all by his lonesome self for Rain or Shine, leading his team with 22 points, 15 rebounds, three assists, three steals, and two blocks in 43 minutes of action. But the local E-Painters failed to provide enough support with Chris Tiu and Jeff Chan the only other scorers in double figures with 10 points apiece. As a result, the E-Painters tumbled to their second straight loss after winning their first two games to take solo fourth in the standings. A frustrated Rain or Shine head coach Yeng Guiao tried to rally his troops the best way he could but was ejected late in the game after incurring his second technical foul for badmouthing the referees. In the first match of Wednesday's double-header, import Elijah Millsap poured in 27 points, 13 of them in the third quarter, to power the Petron Blaze Boosters to a 112-86 demolition of the Air21 Express, their third straight win after an opening game loss. Millsap, the 26-year-old brother of NBA player Paul Millsap, also had 12 rebounds. Five other Boosters scored in double digits with big man Jun Mar Fajardo contributing 17 points, Marcio Lassiter with 13, Alex Cabagnot 13, Arwind Santos 12, and Chris Lutz 10. Petron thus took solo leadership of the conference, while Air21 fell to the bottom of the standings with a 1-3 win-loss record. The Boosters took a 49-38 halftime lead and never looked back, leading by as many as 33 points, 112-79, late in the game as they made mincemeat of Air21's porous defense. The Boosters also managed to clip the production of prolific Air 21 import Zach Graham who could only produce 19 points on 7-of-20 (35 percent) shooting.
