MANILA: Alaska now has a new record to catch.

The Aces Wednesday night rose to 5-0 after outsteadying Sta. Lucia in the fourth quarter, 91-83, to better their PBA Philippine Cup start last season, leaving them now with the challenge of trying to match their 1998 start when they won that season’s most prestigious title.

Willie Miller was again brilliant, scoring 19 points, grabbing four rebounds and issuing five assists as the Aces dealt the Realtors their second loss in five matches to stay on top of the heap after three weeks of play.

“Yes,” coach Tim Cone said when someone asked him if he would be surprised to see his Aces sweep all nine first round assignments. “And besides, we don’t want to look that far because that’s the time when you get your focus out of the task at hand.”

Joe Devance chipped in with 15 points, including a clutch triple, two free throws, and the defensive gem of the night which completely flustered the Realtors during winning time. LA Tenorio was also in his elements, finishing with 13 points, five rebounds and six assists in a 33-minute job that dominated his counterparts at Sta. Lucia, which tried fighting back from several double-digit deficits to come within one point in the fourth.

“We just couldn’t shake them off,” Cone said of the Realtors. “For so many times in that game, we were one, two good plays away from putting them away and we just couldn’t do that.

Miller first hit a layup at the 3:38 mark for 77-73 before a surprise jumper by Jason Misolas shoved the Realtors within a bucket inside the final three minutes.

Devance then started coming up with his heroics, hitting a free throw first before finding the ball in his hands after missing the second, which set him up for a triple from right quarter court for 81-75 with 2:27 left. And after Ryan Reyes completed a three-point play for the Realtors on the other end, Devance put the finishing touches to a telling spurt with two charities with 1:31 left which put the game to bed for the Aces, 86-78.

Kelly Williams led the Realtors with 20 points and 14 rebounds and Gabby Espinas added 16 and 11, but it was Reyes who kept the flame burning for the Realtors in the fourth quarter where he scored eight of his 10 points.

Meanwhile, Lordy Tugade was close to perfect in the final period for San Miguel earlier, hitting all of his game-high 16 points in the final 12 minutes to lift the Beermen to a 93-77 decision of Rain or Shine in the first game.

The reedy sniper from Pangasinan hit all of his three triple tries, was 1-of-2 from two-point zone and 5-of-6 from the stripe which made up for a lackluster effort in the first three periods.

In fact, had Tugade not played the way he did in the fourth quarter and San Miguel lost, the blame would have been all on coach Siot Tanquingcen, who kept his comebacking shooting guard in the game.

“As a coach, you’re not afraid to gamble because you know it will pay off,” Tanquingcen said when asked why Tugade was still in the game even after a 0-of-5 clip in the first three periods.

Tanquingcen, whose Beermen won a third straight game to rise to 3-2 overall, continued.

“He was taking good shots (in the first three periods) but was just not making it,” he explained. “Sometimes, you just have to keep shooting to get out of it (slump).”

Rain or Shine, which beefed up in the off-season, remained as the only winless team in the tournament with its 0-5 record now the franchise’s worst start in four years in the league.

Gabe Norwood and Jeff Chan led the Painters with 14 each, with big men Jay-R Reyes and Mark Clemence Telan combining for another 23.