With the quarterfinals just around the corner, nobody could blame the Alaska coach for sounding the
alarm.

Cone’s concern grew Sunday after the team blew a 31-point advantage and barely survived a fourth
quarter meltdown on a lucky shot – a buzzer beating 3-pointer off the glass by L.A. Tenerio that
lifted Alaska to a 92-89 win in their rematch against San Miguel Beer.

“At this point we’re still not the team we want to be,” said Cone, hoping the Aces would
figure how to work the fourth before the playoffs.

Alaska’s continued struggle to close out games led Cone into admitting during the post-game
interview that the team misses Willie [Miller], the former Alaska closer for whom the Aces traded
for to acquire Cyrus Baguio from Barangay Ginebra.

“Obviously we’re missing Willie a little bit because he was our closer during the fourth
quarter and we are not getting it done right now,” Cone said.

Cone said their inability to handle the situation well enough in the fourth was largely the reason
for most of their losses. Alaska is currently at sixth spot with a 6-7 record.

During its last nine games, Alaska had the lead going into the fourth quarter but because the Aces
have been finding it tough closing out games, they lost seven of those games.

Considering the tournament format, the Alaska coach anticipates that “at some point we might end
up seeing San Miguel in the playoffs”.

Cone said their main objective during their return engagement with the Beermen was to “just play
a good fourth quarter and we didn’t. So we’ll save that for the next game… but we need to get
that done and figure it out before the playoffs because the playoffs are all about playing the
fourth quarter.”