Alaska Aces vs Phoenix Fuel Masters. PBA IMAGES
Phoenix head coach Louie Alas was in no mood to tone down his choice of words after Alaska ripped his team apart in a 93-75 beating in the PBA Philippine Cup Wednesday at Mall of Asia Arena.
“We were raped by my former team,” said Alas, who was the former head assistant coach at Alaska under Alex Compton.
“That was my post-game talk with my players, ‘you allowed them to rape us.’ Before the game, I was saying that this kind of officiating goes for everybody but it fitted Alaska primarily.”
READ: Alaska continues streak, decimates Phoenix
What Alas pointed out was the Aces were able to impose their physicality on the Fuel Masters as the referees this season have been more tolerable in allowing some rough contact.
Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net
Alaska used that to its full advantage and limited Phoenix to just 33 percent shooting, 30-of-90, and run the Fuel Masters to the ground as the Aces raced to 27 fastbreak points.
“If you remember the championship games Alaska before, we got there because of our physicality,” said Alas in Filipino as he referred to the Aces’ runner-up finishes from 2014 to 2016.
The game started off slowly with Alaska ahead just 5-4 five minutes into the game, but with a 21-4 run across the first two quarters, the Aces managed to blow the game wide open and push the lead to 34-14 lead after Nonoy Baclao’s jumper.
READ: Foes first, friends after
Alas was upset with how the Fuel Masters let Alaska take control when Compton fielded his reserves against their starters.
“I was wondering why the game was such a low-scoring one, then Alaska decided to change its players and they had a lot of easy baskets,” said Alas. “We can’t just rely on our starters”