Aces gun for 2-0; June Mar still out

ALASKA and Alex Compton are in the same situation as they were last season against San Miguel Beer in the Smart Bro-PBA Philippine Cup Finals: They won the series opener.

Things didn’t turn out well then, though, even after the Aces had drawn first blood. Now, Compton knows they need “to do better” to keep the Beermen at bay.

“I don’t make this as the end-all, be-all (of this series),” Compton told reporters after a 100-91 victory over the handicapped Beermen on Sunday night. “We were also up (1-0) last season and lost it in Game 7. We have to do better [the rest of the series].”

The Aces try to put more distance between them and the Beermen—who are still expected to be without June Mar Fajardo—in today’s Game 2 at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

Tip off is at 7 p.m. with the Aces hoping they don’t fall into the same slow start like Sunday night that forced them play catch-up almost the entire game.

Fajardo, the reigning two-time MVP, didn’t show up for the series opener because of swelling in his left knee. The 6-foot-10 San Miguel cornerstone twisted the knee in Game 6 of their Final Four series with Rain or Shine.

San Miguel coach Leo Austria won’t play June Mar Fajardo ‘until he is 100-percent healthy

Though surgery has been ruled out, San Miguel coach Leo Austria said he won’t play Fajardo “until he is 100-percent healthy.”

And Compton, amid conflicting reports on the status of Fajardo, said he and his staff will prepare the Aces by “covering all bases.”

“Right now, all we can do is wish him (Fajardo) well,” Compton said. “I hope he’s OK. It’s not my business to ask [San Miguel if Fajardo is playing]. But I like to cover all bases.”

Game 1 was won only in the latter half of the fourth quarter, when the Alaska defense held and its offense clicked, as San Miguel lapsed into several costly turnovers.

“We need to take care of the ball better [in Game 2], otherwise it will be 0-2,” Austria said in disgust after his Beermen coughed the ball up seven times in the fourth period. They finished with 18 turnovers for the game.

Compton believes that the key to their win was their fewer turnovers in the second half. After committing 13 in the first two periods, Alaska had just six errors in the last two.

“We’re capable [of beating San Miguel] offensively,” he said. But we won’t be able to do that with 26 turnovers,” he said.