TAKING EARLY BREAK FAR FROM ACES’ MINDS
For someone who turned 41 a day before, Alaska coach Alex Compton sure felt a lot older after his Aces gutted out a 108-103 double-overtime win over Meralco on Tuesday.
“I feel I turned 55 today,” he said.
But the youthful coach said that the hard-earned victory was a fitting birthday gift for him, aside from the gaudy watch given to him by his wife, as the Aces moved into good position to snare a spot in the 2015 PBA Commissioner’s Cup playoffs.
“All we did was to give ourselves a little bit more life. Now we have the unenviable task of thinking about Talk ‘N Text and Ginebra right away, but at least we gave ourselves a chance,” Compton said. “A game like that where you think you’re gonna win, then you’re gonna lose, then win, then lose again, and to pull it out, it’s just a very good birthday present.”
Still on the outside looking in at 4-5, the Aces join the logjam at sixth place, tied with GlobalPort and Kia, two teams which have beaten them, and Ginebra, their final opponent to wrap up the eliminations.
“We’re just trying to push to make the playoffs. Ang ganda ng standings eh, dikit-dikit ang lahat. Ang problema namin, tambak kami sa GlobalPort, tambak kami sa Barako Bull, tambak din kami sa Kia, so we have to get help from our friends to beat the teams that beat up on us,” said Compton.
Though the odds are stacked against them, the Aces coach believes that the team can still pull off some major push late in the conference.
“I think the bottomline is that we can never rely on other teams to help us. We’ve got to take care of business, but our business is some of the very hardest in the league with Talk ‘N Text and Ginebra,” said Compton.
And he doesn’t want to be one of the first four teams booted out after the eliminations.
“May kasabihan tayo dito na pag natalo, Boracay na. Sa akin, buntis si misis so di kami pwedeng mag-Boracay,” Compton said. “We’ll see what we can do.” (RL)
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