COLD NO MORE WITH CCC CONNECTION -cablay-carriaso-cortez-

Alaska stops FedEx in burning the hoops to book its second straight win despite a struggling offensive game from import Dickey Simpkins.

Alaska went on to its defense on a night when its import had an awful shooting game to hack out an impressive 87-83 stoppage over the high-scoring FedEx squad last night in the PBA Fiesta Conference at the Araneta Coliseum.

Reynel Hugnatan hit a crucial undergoal stab and Jeffrey Cariaso sank two important free throws that preserved the Aces' second straight win to improve their mark to 3-4.

Alaska import Dickey Simpkins struggled offensively as finished with 17 points on 6-of-20 shooting but he made it up with decent board work as he collared a game-high 23 rebounds, 11 on the offensive end.

The former NBA veteran led Alaska's defensive plan as the Aces limited Express, the league's top scoring team with 97.5 points per game, to a conference-low 83 markers.

Cariaso also netted 17 markers to go along with his 5 board and 6 feeds. Mike Cortez and Don Allado also contributed big, chipping in 15 and 10 markers respectively.

"FedEx is playing its best basketball right now and I told the players that nothing won't be easy in this game," said Aces mentor Tim Cone.

"And Dickey really struggled tonight. But one good thing about him is he just plays and plays. He was able to battle back that frustration," Cone added.

The Express fell to 3-4 although they were given a lot of opportunities to salvage their second straight win but could not deliver on crucial stretches.

Alaska was holding on a comfortable 83-78 lead when Arboleda hit a three-pointer at the top of the key to move within two, 81-83, 2:35 left in the game.

Import Anthony Miller had the opportunity to give FedEx the lead back but could not complete the three-point play off a foul by Cortez to level the count at 85-all, 1:43 in the game.

The Aces went empty in the next possession and Wesley Gonzales was fouled by Cortez while attacking the hoop.

But the 6'4 forward muffed both charities, leading to Hugnatan's undergoal basket off a feed by Cariaso to give Alaska an 95-83 edge, 1:04 remaining.

Miller turned the ball over in the next FedEx possession but Sonny Thoss missed on the other end to give the Express under chance to tie or retake the lead.

But Renren Ritualo, with still a lot of time in the shotclock, threw an ill-advised trey that was way off the mark.

FedEx forced Cortez to call timeout with 5 seconds left in the shotclock but Arboleda committed a useless foul on Cariaso, giving the Aces the chance to eat up the remaining 12.3 seconds.

Ritualo sent Cariaso to the 15-foot line and the veteran guard nailed the final points of the game with two free throws.

Alaska now guns its third straight victory against the rolling Coca-Cola on Thursday in Bogo, Cebu City.