ALASKA’S runaway win its last time out was no fluke and the Aces are determined to stress this.

Willie Miller played true to his scoring leader label with a game-high 23 points and Sonny Thoss had 18 points and 19 rebounds as Alaska overcame a sluggish start to crush Talk N Text 102-92 last night for its second lopsided win in the Smart-PBA Philippine Cup at the Astrodome.

"It was a quality win against a quality opponent," said Cone after the match that looked like it would go on the Phone Pals way early.

"It’s always scary going up against Talk N Text. They have so many weapons and they’re so deep. It’s one of those team that you worry about both on defense and offense."

The Aces dealt Red Bull a 100-77 thrashing on Christmas Day and early in last night’s game seemed had little energy left.

Instead, the vigor and panache came back in an instant and now they have injected more life into their outright semifinals bid after improving to a 10-7 win-loss record.

The loss was the Phone Pals’ eighth in 16 games.

It was only in the early part of the opening quarter that Cone and the Aces were worried. Ren-Ren Ritualo built much of his 14 points halfway through the period with 12, and TNT found itself up 12-3.

It was, however, not enough to totally put a good team down.

The Aces retaliated, and then had more firepower in a blistering third quarter where they led by as many as 79-59 and never looked back.

Cone, however, believes that they need the help of the others to barge into the semis outright.

"Our fate isn’t entirely in our hands," said Cone. "We need someone to beat Sta. Lucia, and I think we need Ginebra at this point to beat Red Bull."

The defending champions were playing the Bulls as of press time.

In a related development, Lambert Ramos may yet end up as the league’s seventh commissioner when the PBA Board of Governors convenes on Jan 10.

A reliable source said the man nominated by Alaska to replace Noli Eala has already cornered the six votes needed for him to officially beat rival Atty. Chito Salud.

Ramos, 56, reportedly got only four votes and Salud five when the Board first met last Dec. 17 that ended in an impasse. The corporate and marketing genius allegedly got the nod of TNT, Sta. Lucia, Air21 and Alaska .

The source said Red Bull and Coca-Cola have now switched to Ramos and will vote for him in the final voting.