Playing their second game in a day, the Aces barely showed signs of fatigue and instead, preserved their energy when needed the most to continue their steady showing and punch a ticket to the finals in The Asian Tournament Leg 2 at the Alonte Sports Arena in Biñan, Laguna.
With six players chalking up double-digit outputs, the Aces proved to be too much in giving the Hong Kong Vanta Black Dragons a sound beating, 108-84, on Saturday to advance to the next round.
Marcus Elliot completed a brilliant, all-around performance with a rare triple-double show.
He wrapped up his scintillating game with 19 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds as his Magic Johnson impersonation set the tone for the Aces.
Ricky Bryce finished with a double-double performance of 20 points and 12 rebounds while four other players ended up in double figures for the Aces, whose aggressiveness from producing points inside the paint proved to be the big difference in beating the Dragons.
The Aces scored 56 points, 20 more than their counterparts.
Serhii Prymak had 19 markers, Macky Acosta and Denzel Wong had 15 points apiece and Xavier Alexander contributed 12 for the Aces.
Prymak knew the team cannot celebrate for long as its next tough assignment against Biñan.
“Definitely, it will be a tough one,” said Prymak. “But there’s no excuse. Let’s see. We hope we play with more energy.”
