Travis Romeo vs Jarrid Famous. PBA IMAGES
Alaska import Romeo Travis shrugged off any concerns about his “hurting” knees that kept him out in the entire second half of the Aces’ game against Globalport on Tuesday.
The Aces had the luxury of resting Travis having locked up the top overall seed in the quarterfinals coming into their tiff against the Batang Pier, who needed extra five minutes to win, 117-104, despite facing an all-Filipino team majority of the game.
READ: GlobalPort downs Alaska in OT, snatches final twice-to-beat edge
“My knees are hurting so coach decided to rest me a little bit. It’s just normal pain so coach decided to rest me going into the playoffs to get as much rest as I can,” said Travis, who still came away with a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds in only 17 minutes and 46 seconds of action.
“I’m not worried. It’s just precautionary before it gets too bad,” Travis assured. “He wanted me to take a break because in the playoffs you play every two days so I won’t have many chances to rest.”
Travis felt proud with how the way the Aces stayed in the game and even gave themselves a chance to win without star locals Sonny Thoss and Calvin Abueva in the entire second half. Alaska’s starting guard JVee Casio also played sparingly in the final 17 minutes of the game.
“We should’ve won this game. A few mistakes cost us in the end. We’re a great team without me and they’re going to be a great team with or without me. I just come here and help the guys get better,” Travis said.
Alaska’s second and third stringers carried the load with the starters on the bench cheering. Veteran Eric Menk had 10 points and seven rebounds before fouling out with 3:36 left. Chris Banchero also scored 10 points while rookie Rome dela Rosa did more than what his numbers in the stat sheet are showing.
“Rome dela Rosa, he’s great. He does everything what we ask him to do. He guards the other team’s best wing player and hits open shots,” said Travis.
“It’s good for my confidence getting that kind of playing time and it also shows the confidence coach has on me and hopefully we could carry it over to the quarterfinals,” dela Rosa said.
While it came off surprising to see the undermanned Alaska still taking the game from Globalport, which needed the victory to secure the last top four spot and a twice-to-beat advantage, Aces head coach Alex Compton knew that his team will give itself a chance to win no matter who’s on the floor.
“We believe in our guys,” Compton stressed. “It’s something that we’ve emphasize from the beginning. If you’re playing for us, you’re playing for us. You’re gonna play hard in practice, I don’t see any time that we’re gonna be wasting you. You’re gonna get your chance, guys got their chance and they honored it.”
Compton also pointed out the importance of playing a deep rotation and keeping the players ready at any point in time.
“You never know in the playoffs who’s gonna step up and make the plays. In the history of basketball it always seems like there’s those games where somebody comes in, hasn’t gotten a lot of minutes throughout the year and they make big plays in a pivotal game.” CFC