Coach Alex Compton of Alaska. FILE PHOTO
Several years ago, Alex Compton was still learning the ropes as the man with the pen and the clipboard while Tim Cone was “the” man with pen and clipboard having a PBA Grand Slam under his belt.
Compton said he and coach Eric Altamirano invited Cone as a speaker at the National Basketball Training Camp when he heard a quote that would stick to his mind until 2015.
“It was five or six years ago, we at the NBTC invited coach Tim as a speaker,” Compton recalled. “He said ‘defense is about character.'”
Fast forward to July 3, 2015, Compton’s Alaska Aces manhandled Cone’s Star Hotshots 95-74 to get a 2-0 series lead in their best-of-five semifinals series in the PBA Governors’ Cup.
Alaska held Star to 26-of-68 shooting, 38 percent, while they shot a more respectable 42-of-78 or 54 percent.
Shooting wasn’t the Hotshots’ only problem.
They were also ransacked in the rebounding department as the Aces out-rebounded them 49-32.
“Most people look at the glory boys, the best player is always the scorer,” Compton said, but it was his team’s defense which propelled them.