By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Vic “Muscle Man” Manuel and the Alaska Aces embraced the challenge of going up against their former superstar and the returning Calvin “The Beast” Abueva.
With the game on the line, the Aces leaned on Manuel’s veteran experience and scoring to help them nip the Phoenix Super LPG Fuelmasters, 105-97.
Manuel managed to score multiple times from the post and was a problem for Phoenix in the last quarter as he poured in 24 huge points and also spearheaded a massive 20-2 run.
The dramatic Aces run came after Phoenix’s head coach Topex Robinson was slapped with a technical foul after pleading his case towards a non-call in a scramble between Abueva and Barkley Eboña.
Abueva and the Fuelmasters went stagnant as the game drew to a close and found themselves down facing a large deficit, 99-82.
Despite Matthew Wright’s 27 points and Abueva’s all-around contribution of 18 points, eight rebounds, and five assists, Phoenix was unable to make up for the deficit in the last three minutes of the game.
Meanwhile, in the second game, the NLEX Road Warriors dealt TNT Tropang Giga their first loss in the bubble, 109-98.
