NO EXCUSES, WE JUST HAVE TO PLAY HARDER – COMPTON
Three games into the 2015 PBA Commissioner’s Cup and Alaska looks a shell of its old self which made it to the Finals of the last conference.
With four guys nursing injuries, coach Alex Compton’s charges lost big to GlobalPort Tuesday, 73-95.
“The thing that was troublesome is they beat us to the balls. That’s not our identity. That’s not who we are. That’s disappointing,” the coach said after slowly emerging from the lockers.
The Batang Pier outhustled the Aces, outrebounding the Philippine Cup runners up, 51-44, and also scoring 16 points off of Alaska’s 11 turnovers.
“I understand you’re not going to win all games, you’ll lose some and you’re gonna have some off nights, but you’ve got to pursue the ball. I thought they pursued the ball harder than we did. That’s not acceptable,” Compton said.
The American coach also hoped that the Aces rekindle their defensive intensity which was key in their success last conference, saying, “There will be days where you’ll miss shots. After the first quarter, they shot 51 percent over the next three quarters. That’s not us. When we got to the Finals, our opponents shot 38 percent against us. We’re much better defensively. We’ve got to remember what got us to one possession away from the championship.”
Not wanting to dwell on injuries as an excuse, Compton challenged his wards to come out better in their next game, incidentally against San Miguel next Tuesday.
He said, “Obviously, the injured players are important to us, but we don’t make excuses. We have 12 guys in Alaska uniform on there.”
“As a whole, everybody practices, everybody does the skill work. We might have four guys out, but we still have 12 guys in uniform so we’ve got to play harder.” (RL)
Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.
