Survival Games

Sean Anthony (with the ball) has been very steady for NorthPort all conference long. —RICHARD A. REYES

Alaska coach Alex Compton thinks NorthPort is “pretty darned good” and that the Batang Pier’s record is a poor reflection of their true worth.

“[T]heir record is so deceiving,” he said.

Maybe it’s in the way NorthPort coach Pido Jarencio has his wards thinking nowadays.

“I told [the players] to make a name for themselves,” he said, when asked about the team’s spectacular showing in a 109-83 rout of TNT that knocked the KaTropa out of contention for a twice-to-beat playoff privilege.

Then, unearthing his battle cry when he coached a severely underdog University of Santo Tomas squad to an improbable UAAP title in 2006, Jarencio added; “‘Yung ‘pride, puso, palaban,’ doon na lalabas ‘yan (The pride, heart and fighting spirit will eventually come out).”

NorthPort’s victory over TNT, indeed, caught Compton’s attention.

“I don’t know if you watched [their game against TNT] but they’re pretty darned good,” he said.

But that’s not the reason Compton is wary of Jarencio’s boys when they clash in a survival battle at 4:30 p.m.

“I was at their game with Phoenix, their game with Meralco,” Compton said, noting the Batang Pier’s narrow losses earlier in the conference.

Compton saw how NorthPort could have easily won both save for key breaks that went against it. Had the Batang Pier gotten those breaks to go their way, Compton would have been facing a 6-4 squad.

And Alaska (4-6), which is coming off a 114-96 beating at the hands of San Miguel last Sunday,  won’t treat NorthPort as a fellow sub-.500 squad as it shoots for a victory that could nudge the Aces into seventh place—good enough for a spot in the quarterfinal round.

“We’ve been here at the bottom. We’re just trying to get to playing right,” Compton added.

Meralco is also looking at fanning its flickering playoff plans to life against a Barangay Ginebra squad at 7 p.m.

But the Bolts need a lot of things to go their way to stay alive.

The Gin Kings (6-3) have little at stake in the game as they are already in the playoffs—but out of the race for the playoff bonus.

Meanwhile, with the league to celebrate its 44th anniversary on April 9, prices of tickets for the whole of next month will be slashed by 44 percent in select sections of the venues.

Forty-four prizes will be raffled off, and the first 44 government employees who can show their IDs will be given free admission to the venues every game day for the whole month.