Banchero keeps ball moving for ‘on fire’ Aces in win over TNT

The old saying goes that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade and that can also be translated, loosely, into basketball.

When the game gives you open teammates, you make scorers out of them and that was what Chris Banchero did when Alaska whipped TNT 125-96 in the PBA Governors’ Cup.

Banchero found the open man more often than not as he dished out 14 assists that went with his 15 points in just three quarters, keeping his eyes peeled for those red jerseys moving and cutting around the court.

“It’s easy to have that many assists when guys are on fire, all I got to do is to get the ball to them,” said Banchero Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum. “We came out really strong and it was nice, we got four games in nine days so we want to get off to a good start.”

Speaking of good starts, the Aces had one of the best starts this young conference has seen.

The Aces rolled over the KaTropa like their lives depended on it with a blistering 35-13 first quarter, a period where Banchero had three passes that led to as many Simon Enciso triples and also one more assist for Nonoy Baclao’s layup just for good measure.

Overall, Banchero found Enciso six times for open three-pointers and he also found Vic Manuel and import Mike Harris four times for layups.

Bancero also tallied three assists off Ping Exciminiano’s shots.

Despite his playmaking masterpiece, Banchero knows there’s still a room for improvement as they plan to move up from their 2-0 record.

“There’s always room for improvement, we’ll watch film tomorrow and build from there, I don’t think we shot that well from the free throw line tonight,” said Banchero whose team went 10-of-17 from stripe. “We got to work on that if we want to be a championship team.”

“The guys were making their shots, it was fun to watch.”