Coffee Planet

Friday, November 9, 2012

Vengeful Alaska get another shot at San Mig Mixers, former coach By Richard Dy

Alaska coach Luigi Trillo, left, says Tim Cone's San Mig Coffee Mixers are one of the top two teams in the pro league. Jerome Ascano

ALASKA is looking to bounce back from a tough loss, but the Aces will have to do so at the expense of a team its coach Luigi Trillo considers as one of the top two in the PBA Philippine Cup.
The Aces battle the rampaging San Mig Coffee Mixers on Saturday as the league holds its third Phoenix road game on Tour of the season-opening tournament in Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu.
Still reeling from a 93-101 setback against Rain or Shine that snapped their five-game winning streak, Trillo's men take on a San Mig team (5-2) that lost twice to Alaska in the offseason – once in a special, four-team tournament also held in Cebu – but whipped the Aces, 103-83, in their first meeting in the eliminations last October 5.
The Alaska mentor admitted they were completely dominated by the Mixers, who are currently on a roll after winning their last three outings, including a 78-68 win recently against Barangay Ginebra.
“To me on paper, San Mig Coffee is one of the top two teams in the league right now. I think San Mig is one of the best teams in terms of wins in the last three conferences,” said Trillo.
The Mixers were easily head and shoulders above the Aces during their first encounter.
San Mig shot an astounding 64.6 percent from the field, while playing tight defense all throughout, limiting Alaska to just 30.7 percent (27-of-88) en route to the ghastly 20-point rout.
“We just need to make sure our defense set the tone early,” added Trillo, who hopes his team won’t repeat the fourth-quarter defensive meltdown they suffered against Rain or Shine.
But like Trillo, San Mig Coffee head coach Tim Cone has been preaching defense to his team since he came on board last season.
Unlike in the past when the Mixers, according to Cone, had been winning much of their games through sheer offensive might, this time the American mentor wants his boys to take pride in becoming a strong defensive team.
“I felt we’ve been trying to win the game with our offense and with our talent. Now, we’re putting more emphasis on defense. That’s what we try to instill in everybody and take pride in being a defensive team first,” said Cone.
This marks the first time the Mixers will have a shot at Alaska’s top rookie Calvin Abueva, who has been sensational during the Aces’ string of victories but was held to seven points and six rebounds in the Aces’ last outing against the Elasto Painters - far from his 15.2-point, 10.5 -rebound average in his first four games with the team.

Follow the writer on Twitter: @richava

source: http://www.spin.ph/sports/basketball/news/vengeful-alaska-get-another-shot-at-san-mig-mixers-former-coach

Villanueva done for season as spike in injuries raises fears By Richard Dy

Enrico Villanueva suffered the ACL injury at a time when his career was experiencing a resurgence since rejoining Barako Bull at the start of the season. Jerome Ascano

BIG man Enrico Villanueva is expected to miss around six to eight months after doctors confirmed that he had torn an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) on his right knee late in Barako Bulls' 85-86 loss to Air21 on Friday night.
Barako Bull coach Junel Baculi said the 6-5 slotman will undergo knee surgery on Wednesday under Dr. George Canlas at the St. Luke’s Medican Center in Global City.
“Haay, sunud-sunod nga eh,” said Baculi, referring to the spate of heartbreaking losses this season, and now, the loss of Villanueva whose game had been on the rise since rejoining Barako Bull this season.
Villanueva injured the knee after trying to go hard to the basket against Express big man Rob Reyes on a fastbreak. The former Ateneo Blue Eagle star fell to floor clutching his knee, and later told Baculi that he felt something "snap" on the knee during the play.
“Life goes on for the team without Enrico. Malamang next season na siya makabalik. It’s tough, especially since mga two points, three points or four points lang ang mga naging talo namin with him,” added Baculi.
Baculi said the team will sorely miss Villanueva’s 14.2-point, 9.2-rebound average this season, while saying he expects Douglas Kramer and even rookie Dave Marcelo to take over the veteran in the center spot.
Villanueva now joins Barang Ginebra guard Dylan Ababou and Petron Blaze rookie center June Mar Fajardo on the sidelines this season.
Just two Sundays back, Ababou likewise crumpled to the floor after trying to go up for a basket against San Mig Coffee shooter James Yap. An MRI test revealed Ababou tore his ACL on his right knee.
Fajardo, on the other hand, underwent surgery to ease the swelling and stop the bleeding on his scrotum. The 6’9” Cebuano was coming off a huge 16-point-13-rebound effort for the Boosters before accidentally being hit by Mixers big man Marc Pingris.

Follow the writer on Twitter: @richava

source: http://www.spin.ph/sports/basketball/news/villanueva-done-for-season-as-spike-in-injuries-raises-fears-v02#.UJ3SX49H9oQ.twitter

San Mig Coffee takes on Alaska in Lapu-Lapu

BASKETBALL

InterAKTV · Friday, November 9, 2012 · 10:50 pm

PBA/Nuki Sabio

Alaska eyes revenge for its loss to San Mig Coffee in their first meeting when they battle again on Saturday in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu as the 2013 PBA Philippine Cup resumes.
The Aces, whose five-game winning streak was snapped by Rain or Shine last Wednesday, collide with the Mixers at 6:30 p.m. with the latter hoping to join the Elasto Painters at second spot.
“They won by 20 points. They shot 65 percent from the field. They had 27 assists and scored 103 points. We have to do a better job of staying with them,” said Alaska coach Luigi Trillo about his team’s 103-83 defeat to San Mig Coffee last October 5.
“We have to fight fading against this team.”
The loss to Rain or Shine was the first PBA loss for Alaska ace rookie Calvin Abueva, who was held by the Elasto Painters to just seven points in 18 minutes.
Abueva was not yet in the Alaska roster when the Aces absorbed the 20-point loss to the Mixers, who are on a three-game winning run capped by a 78-68 victory over Barangay Ginebra San Miguel last Sunday.
San Mig Coffee is currently at third spot with a 5-2 win-loss record, and a win would put them in a tie with Rain or Shine for second place.
Alaska must be ready as San Mig Coffee is more dangerous this time with the return of JC Intal and the re-emergence of Joe Devance.
Intal played limited minutes against the Gin Kings but coach Tim Cone said the team is taking it slowly for the ex-Ateneo stalwart.
“I foresee JC to start for us but he’s not there yet,” said Cone.

Source: http://www.interaksyon.com/interaktv/san-mig-coffee-takes-on-alaska-in-lapu-lapu

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Anne Curtis leads dancing doctors in setting new Guinness world records

Source: http://www.interaksyon.com/entertainment/anne-curtis-leads-dancing-doctors-in-setting-new-guinness-world-records/

By Edwin P. Sallan, InterAksyon.com · Friday, November 9, 2012 · 11:02 am

Anne Curtis dances her heart out for cervical cancer awareness at the PICC Reception Hall Thursday night. (Rudy Esperas/InterAksyon)

Annebisyosa’s goals just got a little more noble.
Already the most popular actress in the country today, Anne Curtis has been honored with the biggest awards of her career including Celebrity of the Year (2nd Yahoo! OMG Awards), Box Office Queen (tied with Cristine Reyes in the Guillermo Mendoza Box Office Entertainment Awards), Pinakapasadong Aktres (14th Gawad Pasado Awards) and the FAMAS Best Actress trophy for “No Other Woman”.
In addition, Anne has also managed to successfully pursue a singing career that she initially describes as “super fun” and “not serious” that actually won her awards for one of the Phenomenal Entertainers of the Year in the Tambayan OPM Awards and—dig this—Most Popular Female Novelty Singer, also in the Guillermo Mendoza Box Office Entertainment Awards.
Now aiming for an even higher goal in the aid of helping an important cause, the ever effervescent entertainer has just helped 1,146 doctors set not one but two new Guinness World Records for Biggest Hiphop Dance Event and the First Large Number of Dancing Doctors to Fight A Disease.
“Going to do some dancing with some doctors!!!!!”, she tweeted earlier in the day to her more than 3.6 million followers on Twitter.

Look, it's not a prison in Cebu! 1,146 doctors dance their way to two Guinness world records. (Rudy Esperas/InterAksyon)

The event was dubbed as “Beat It!: Fighting Cervical Cancer One Beat At A Time” and took place Thursday night at the Philippine International Convention Center Reception Hall. Together with Jason Zamora of the Manoevres, the Philippine All Stars and actor Richard Yap, Anne led the doctors in strutting to some of the most popular dance hits of today, including Psy’s “Gangnam Style” and Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe”, which Anne sang with so much gusto to open the program.
Organized by the Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society (POGS) and sponsored by GSK Philippines, the event did not meet its original target of 1,500 dancing doctors but still managed to achieve its objective as only 1,000 doctors were needed to set the record.
The “new records” are still subject to validation by the Guinness Book of World Records officials and will only become official with their own announcement.

Anne, Jason Zamora, and the Philippine All Stars lead the dance on stage. (Rudy Esperas/InterAksyon)

But more than simply outdoing the dancing inmates of Cebu, the whole exercise was meant to generate more awareness for cervical cancer, which POGS president Dr. Rey Delos Reyes said is the second most common cancer in the world for women. In the Philippines alone, over 7,000 new cases of the dreaded diseases are reported annually, with 12 Filipinas dying every day from it.
“What is worse is that cervical cancer can be asymptomatic during its early stages and women discover they have the disease when it has severely progressed,” Dr. Delos Reyes added.
More than mere awareness, the dance event also generated approximately 1,400 anti-cervical cancer vaccines for the participating regions with one vaccine each for every participating doctor and two for the doctors representing the top two regions that signed up for the event.

Doctors work up a sweat to promote cervical cancer awareness. (Rudy Esperas/InterAksyon)

For Anne and the rest of the dancing doctors, however, setting world records is just the icing on the cake. Saving the lives of many Filipinas from the deathly grip of a fatal but highly preventable diseases is the true triumph of “Beat It!”.
Event organizers said a video of the record-setting dance will be posted Friday on YouTube.

Lola Siony so proud of Abueva’s rise from Balibago shanty to stardom By Mei-Lin Lozada

“Proud na proud talaga ako sa apo ko,” Purificacion Abueva, 66, says of Alaska super rookie Calvin. “Lumaki kasi siya na walang tatay, mahirap lang kami, ngayon nakakatulong na siya sa amin.” Jerome Ascano

THEY say behind every successful man is a woman. In Calvin Abueva’s case, there were three women.
Lola Siony, for one, was there every step of the way and witnessed how a skinny, hyper-energetic kid who grew up without a father and lived in poverty with his mother, sister, and grandmother in their neighborhood in Balibago in Angeles City tracked an unlikely path to stardom through this one game he became really good at.
“Proud na proud talaga ako sa apo ko,” Purificacion Abueva, 66, told Spin.ph as he recalled the early years of the former San Sebastian Stag who is now the hottest player in the PBA. “Lumaki kasi siya na walang tatay, mahirap lang kami, ngayon nakakatulong na siya sa amin.”
To this day, tears still welled in her eyes when Lola Siony recalled how a young Calvin and her sister Jovelle were raised in a Balibago shanty so small that the only space available, which passed for the living room, was where the family of four did pretty much everything – cook, eat, rest, sleep.
There wasn’t much Calvin could do at home, she recalled, that he spent much of his childhood years roaming the poor neighborhood to play before setting up a goal in front of their shack with a piece of plywood as backboard and the handle of a pail as ring, learning a game that would soon become the family’s ticket out of poverty.
"Noong five (years old) pa lang siya, gumawa 'yan ng paglalaruan niya ng basketball. Ginawa niya ‘yung plywood yung board tapos yung hawakan ng timba ang ring," said Lola Siony, flashing an engaging, toothless smile. "Kaya bata pa lang ‘yang si Calvin gusto na talaga niya mag-basketball.”
At San Sebastian, Abueva earned the moniker ‘The Beast’ largely because of his combination of brute strength, raw talent, and boundless energy rarely seen from a player in college. But Lola Siony was the least bit surprised, saying his grandson was already like that even when he was still a kid.
She allowed the kid to spend all that pent-up energy playing with the neighborhood kids, on two conditions – one, that he won’t get into a fight. And two, if you did end up in one, don’t go home crying to grandma.
“Five years old pa lang s’ya independent na yan,” she said. “Pinapabayaan ko lang naman siya pag gusto niya maglaro. Pero ang kaisa-isa kong bilin sa kanya, wag siyang makikipag-away at ‘wag siyang uuwi ng umiiyak.”
The kid took the advice to heart, even if he was sometimes bullied and ridiculed like most ‘Amboys’ in his neighborhood.
“Kahit noong bata pa siya pag natumba ‘yan di ‘yan umiiyak at babangon siya agad. Kahit may nang-aaway sa kanya ‘di umiiyak. Hindi rin nagsusumbong. Dati nga, kung hindi pa nagsabi sa akin yung mga kaklase niya hindi ko malalaman na tinusok pala siya ng lapis sa ulo,” said Lola Siony, or Mama as Calvin would call her.

Lola Siony, Jovelle, and some of Calvin Abueva's longtime friends commute from Pampanga and back to watch the Alaska rookie play. Photo courtesy of Jovelle Abueva

But it was not all playtime for the young Calvin. Lola Siony said the kid would also often help man their balut stand in the neighborhood, which for a long time was the family’s only source of income.

“Sinasamahan niya ako magtinda. Minsan sasabihin niya, ‘Sige na, mama, ako na lang dito’,” Lola Siony said. “Nakakatuwa nga kasi kapag siya ang nagtitinda nakakarami ng benta, minsan ubos pa ang paninda ko.”

Lola Siony commutes from Pampanga and back these days with Jovelle and some of Calvin’s longtime friends to watch the Alaska star’s every game, her heart filled with pride each time the coliseum explodes into cheers over her grandson’s exploits.

But it wasn’t always like that, she said. Back when Abueva was playing in barangay leagues in Pampanga, Lola Siony said she had to ride tricyles to watch him play and lend moral support.

“Pag nga siya sinisigawan ng mga tao na ‘squatter’ o kundi naman pag minumura siya, nasasaktan ako,” Lola Siony said. “Sabi ko na lang laro lang naman to ‘wag sana sila mang-insulto.”

Long after Calvin had already made a name for himself in Manila, Lola Siony said the Stags star would still come home to Pampanga during weekends, insisting that her ‘Mama’ should be the one to wash all his uniforms.

“Kahit naglalaro na siya sa Maynila, umuuwi pa rin yan sa Pampanga tapos ako maglalaba ng mga uniform niya. Pwede naman iba na gumawa noon pero ako pa rin ang gusto niya maglaba. Malambing talaga siya,” she said.

Calvin’s elder sister, Jovelle, said the player who would stare down opponents after each two-handed dunk, flex his muscles for the camera after a highlight play, and not back down from any fight is a kid at heart who wants nothing more than to help his family have a better life.

“Hindi siya mayabang, kung ano siya dati hanggang ngayon ganyan pa rin siya,” Jovelle said. “Di naman kasi niya iniisip na sikat siya. Basta ang alam lang niya maglalaro siya ng basketball para makatulong siya sa family.”

From the money Calvin had saved playing in the big leagues in Manila as well as in countless small-time leagues all over the country where he used to be a fixture as a ‘hugot,' the Abuevas were able to buy their own house in Porac, Pampanga and have expanded the property little by little.

“Nakabili na kami ng rent to own na bahay sa Pampanga, napagawa na rin namin ‘yung kusina at kwarto,” said Lola Siony. “Ngayon gusto ko naman makabili siya ng bahay niya at makatayo siya ng sarili niyang negosyo.”

Follow the writer on Twitter: @meilinlozada

source: http://www.spin.ph/sports/basketball/special-reports/lola-siony-so-proud-of-abuevas-rise-from-balibago-shanty-to-stardom#page-1

Petron’s Jay Washington allegedly damages glass door at SMART-Araneta

Rey Joble, InterAKTV · Thursday, November 8, 2012 · 4:02 pm

The glass door outside the Petron locker room. InterAKTV/Jaemark Tordecilla

Petron Blaze forward Jay Washington faces a possible fine after damaging the glass door leading to the team’s locker room after the Boosters’ game against the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters.
Eyewitnesses pointed to Washington as the culprit of the damaged glass door, which was heavily taped due to cracks.
Asked by InterAKTV if there’s any injury sustained by Washington during the incident, Petron Blaze team manager Hector Calma said his player’s “hand is fine.”
“Pero yung pinto dati nang may lamat yan,” added Calma, who didn’t comment on charges that Washington punched the glass door, causing additional damage and cracks to it.
Washington had already left the venue when InterAKTV tried to get his side on the incident.
On Twitter, Petron coach Olsen Racela’s wife Melissa said Washington did not punch the glass door.
Gines Enriquez, executive of SMART-Araneta Coliseum, said they will conduct further investigation regarding the incident and will impose possible charges if proven that Washington caused the damage on the glass door.
In last season’s Governors Cup finals, B-MEG (now San Mig Coffee) coach Tim Cone was fined for throwing a chair inside the playing court, causing damage to the floor of the venue.

source: http://www.interaksyon.com/interaktv/petrons-jay-washington-allegedly-damages-glass-door-at-smart-araneta