MANILA: The Barangay Ginebra Kings roared to their fifth straight win, trouncing the Alaska Aces, 79-68, Sunday night in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum. Like in their previous victories, the Kings overwhelmed the Aces with the depth of their high-scoring guards led by Willie Miller, who topscored with 16 points, and Mark Caguioa, who had 14. The win catapulted Ginebra to the top of standings in a tie with idle San Miguel and Talk ‘N Text, all with a 6-2 win-loss record. After burying their previous four opponents by an average margin of 18 points, capped by 107-81 rout of the Air21 Express last Nov. 5, the Kings found the Aces a tougher nut to crack but prevailed nevertheless. The Aces, who came from an emphatic 96-67 win over Powerade last Nov. 10, failed to unleash their firepower this time amid a stifling Ginebra defense. Alaska thus fell into a 4-5 slate, in a tie with the Meralco Bolts for fifth to sixth places. Joe de Vance led the Aces with 17 points. In the first match of the double-header, Macmac Cardona knocked in 23 points, including his team's last seven points, plus seven assists as the Meralco Bolts scored their second straight win, beating the Air21 Express, 95-93. Meralco rookie Hans Thiele, who was acquired from Barako Bull, added a career-high 16 points on a 7-of-9 shooting from the field. Cardona made just 10 of his first 23 attempts but went 4 of 8 in the fourth, including two three-pointers. Rabeh Al-Husseini led the Express with 20 points while Ronjay Buenafe added 17. The Express suffered their sixth loss in nine games as they fell just a rung higher than the idle tailender Barako Bull (2
