Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
They’ve both had roller-coaster elimination round performances, and Alaska coach Alex Compton and his counterpart at NLEX, Yeng Guiao, know that they’re lucky to still be playing a game like this.
“We are alive and breathing,” Compton told the Inquirer through a text message. “A chance is all we could have hoped for and a chance is all we’ve got.”
They take that one remaining chance on Friday night when the Aces battle Guiao and the Road Warriors at 7 at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay for the right to play on in the PBA Philippine Cup—even with the winner drawing the squad with the best record in the first round of the playoffs and needing to beat it two straight times.
Compton, though, refuses to look beyond the Road Warriors and is just counting his blessings.
“We are grateful to have this chance in spite of the crazy conference we’ve had,” he said.
Alaska has had manpower woes all throughout the conference, with leading scorer Vic Manuel still sitting it out. And for a long stretch of the round, the Aces practically had their starting unit on the bench because of injuries.
The Road Warriors and Alaska finished with 4-7 records like Columbian to tie for No. 8, but the Dyip got eliminated because of the worst quotient.
NLEX ripped the undermanned Aces in their only elimination round clash, 91-70, on March 13. And that alone should give Guiao all the confidence he needs coming into this game.
But losing to Magnolia by 28 points on Wednesday is not a cause for that.
“I thought we would be playing a good game, competing. We’ve had good practices. [But] we just played badly,” Guiao said after a 102-74 loss to the Hotshots.
“We’ll just keep our hopes high and we’ll keep trying our best to make the next round,” he said. “At least, we still have a chance.”
Phoenix Pulse, which ended the eliminations with a 9-2 record, awaits the winner of this match. This quarterfinal series will start on Sunday.
Rain or Shine finished No. 2 and will clash with NorthPort. The Elasto Painters need to win just once to advance to the Final Four.
Barangay Ginebra and Magnolia are in a dream best-of-three series after finishing No. 3 and No. 6, respectively.
San Miguel Beer, shooting to win this conference for the fifth straight season, tangles with TNT KaTropa in another race-to-two series.