MANILA: The Alaska Aces finally ended their four-game losing streak, blasting the Powerade Tigers, 96-67, Wednesday night in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum. LA Tenorio scored 15 points and had five rebounds and six assists to lead the Aces to their fourth win in eight games, tying the idle Rain or Shine Elasto Painters at fourth to fifth spot in the standings. After losing four games in a row, including an embarrassing 71-83 loss to the Meralco Bolts last Saturday in Victorias City, the Aces poured all their frustrations on Wednesday, asserting their dominance right at the start with a flurry of baskets that buried the Tigers in a pit too deep for them to crawl out. Meanwhile, in the first match of the double-header, Peter June Simon exploded with a career-high 42 points to power the B-Meg Derby Ace Llamados to a 102-97 win against the Air21 Express. Shooting 13-for-15 from the field, including a perfect 11-of-11 from the two-point area and 14-of-18 from the foul line, Simon was simply unstoppable Wednesday night as he topped the previous season-high 31 points scored by Powerade guard Gary David against Meralco last Oct. 30. Simon also shattered his previous career-high of 32 points, which scored in 2000 against Coke. It was the Llamados second straight win following their 104-97 thrashing of the highly touted Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters last Friday wherein Simon and James Yap finished with 23 points apiece. In his best game in the PBA so far, Rabeh Al-Hussaini knocked in a career-high 25 points, but his superb performance went down the drain as the Express fell to their sixth defeat in nine ganes in the PBA.
