Alaska, Hontiveros agree to 1-year deal

Alaska has signed forward Dondon Hontiveros to a fresh one-year contract despite a poor performance against San Miguel Beer in the recent PBA Governors’ Cup Finals.

The Cebuano hotshot averaged six points in the semis but was a big letdown during the Finals where he managed just 3.5 points average and was scoreless in Games 2 and 4.

Also given another one-year extension was reserve forward Noy Baclao as the Aces continue to put the pieces back together for the next PBA season.

Alaska team manager and board representative Richard Bachmann said that Hontiveros and Baclao are two of the nine Aces with expiring contracts on Aug. 31.

“We’re OK now with Dondon and Noy. The rest, we’re still negotiating,” said Bachmann yesterday. “We’re confident that we’ll get them signed even before the expiration of their contracts.”

The other Alaska players whose contract will expire next month includes rookie guard Chris Banchero, forward Vic Manuel, backup guards Ping Exciminiano, RJ Jazul, veteran center Eric Menk, and reserve forward Paolo Bugia and guard Joshua Vanlandingham.

“We’re talking to Vic and RJ, and also Chris. We’ll finalize it when boss Fred (Uytengsu) returns. He just returned from the US but he will be in Cebu for his Ironman event,” said Bachmann.

“Definitely, they’ll stay with us, we’re just looking on the number of years. After negotiations with the three, our next step is to sign the remaining expiring players, Eric, Ping, Paolo, Josh,” added Bachmann.

Alaska reached the Finals twice this season, but lost in a thrilling seven-game showdown with San Miguel Beer during the Philippine Cup and was swept by the same team in a bestof-seven series in the Governors’ Cup.

Bachmann said that while they are keeping all players for next season, they are hoping to improve their roster via the PBA Rookie Draft, saying: “We’ll see who is available and can fit the system.”

“I have not talked to coach Alex (Compton), but we’ll have a discussion soon,” Bachmann said.