MANILA, Philippines—Alaska needed less than 12 minutes to tie its championship series with Magnolia at 1-1 in the PBA Governors’ Cup.
Just 12 minutes of quality basketball would’ve done the trick, but the Aces didn’t have quality basketball in those 10 minutes of play.
Alaska had poor execution down the stretch that allowed the Hotshots to take a 77-71 win and a commanding 2-0 series lead Friday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“It was hard, I mean you guys saw. It was tough and we really couldn’t get anything,” said Alaska point guard Chris Banchero. “We need to do a better job, we’re going to watch film, and we just have to do a better job of getting into our offense and get into the post and out.”
The Hotshots’ performance in the fourth quarter wasn’t exactly a masterpiece since they went just 5-of-13 in the period but what the Aces’ did was quantifiably worse.
Alaska went an abysmal 2-of-20 from the field and committed eight of its total 26 turnovers all in the fourth quarter.
The Aces’ lone field goals in the fourth were a Mike Harris jumper and a Banchero layup with the latter giving Alaska a 69-68 lead and those were early in the period.
“They [the Hotshots] took us out of our rhythm,” said Banchero, who had nine points, nine assists, but turned the ball over seven times.
“We couldn’t knock down shots at the end. We couldn’t get anything and what destroyed the game for us were the turnovers. We have to take care of the ball better.”
Of Alaska’s 26 turnovers, 20 came off Magnolia steals.
“They’re very pesky and they have good defensive guards, we just have to take care of the ball.”