Alaska coach Tim Cone ranks their victory against San Miguel Beer in the recent PBA Fiesta Cup Final high on the list of their accomplishments. "It's almost like a script," Cone said after steering the Aces to their 13th championship. "This is really sweet, really special." "That's the way we want to go. It's an overwhelming performance by our team. It's like... we're destined to win this thing," added Cone. Cone said they have a young and talented team capable of winning more titles in the years to come. "We have a young team, young players who have matured this season, and in this conference," Cone said. Playmaker LA Tenorio and shooting guard Cyrus Baguio have evolved into one of the league's best backcourt partnerships. They were eventually named co-winners of the Welcoat Paints PBA Fiesta Cup Finals MVP. With versatile import Diamon Simpson firing 28 points and grabbing 19 rebounds, the Aces closed out the Beermen with little difficulty Wednesday. Baguio contributed 24 points, while Tenorio added 12 markers, with 11 assists and six boards. Forward Joe Devance had 12 points on 3-of-7 shooting from three-point territory, and bigman Sonny Thoss had 12 and 10 rebounds. Cone earned his 13th PBA title - all with Alaska as he moved two titles away from tying legendary coach Baby Dalupan's 15 PBA titles. He considers No. 13 as the sweetest, "considering lineup of the teams they beat in the playoffs: Barangay Ginebra, top seed Talk 'N Text and the defending champion San Miguel Beer. Alaska eliminated Ginebra in a thrilling five-game series in the quarterfinals, and knocked out TNT in the semifinals punctuated by victories in Games 6 and 7 to advance to the Finals against SMB. The Aces took the first two games of series (89-83, Game 1 and 94-90, Game 2), before the Beermen rebounded with a victory in Game 3 (96-80), Alaska won Game 4 (90-83) to take a commanding 3-1 lead. San Miguel Beer kept its hopes alive with a victory in Game 5 (96-94) when it allowed assistant coach Gee Abanilla to call the shots vice head coach Siot Tanquingcen. But in Game 6, the Beermen had no answer to Cone's gameplan. "What makes this special is the fact that the road we have to take here is so incredible. Could you pick a herder road? I don't think so," Cone said. "We have to work hard, day-in, day-out." The latest triumph moved the Wilfred Uytengsu-owned franchise tied with Crispa in the all-time list behind San Miguel's 18 titles.
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