Road Warriors, Aces seek QF berth
NOTHING less than an outright quarterfinals berth is at stake when Alaska and NLEX battle Friday in the PBA Governors Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena.
A victory will push either the Aces or the Road Warriors to the company of TNT Ka Tropa, Barangay Ginebra, San Miguel Beer, Meralco and Mahindra, which have already qualified for the eight-team quarterfinals.
The loser drops into a tie with Phoenix and possibly Rain or Shine should the Elasto Painters prevail over eliminated Star later in the evening.
Such multiple ties would be broken first by the PBA quotient to determine the No. 7 team with the remaining two squaring it off in a knockout game for the last slot.
There’s no two ways to go about it, according to Alaska coach Alex Compton. “Huge game for us,” he said.
“We win and we are in. We lose and we may have a playoff for an 8th spot,” added Compton.
NLEX chief tactician Boyet Fernandez knows his team is up for a very long night. “Alaska is considered as one of the stronger teams in the PBA and their standing is not indicative of how strong they are,” he stated.
“Facing Alaska in this situation will be tough. We have to match Alaska’s intensity and bring our defensive mentality if we want to upset Alaska.”
Compton is not one to count out the Road Warriors, what with their own packed roster.
“The tough thing is, Henry Walker is really an NBA player. He is the complete package offensively and that will cause us to have to throw a variety of different defensive schemes at him,” Compton pointed out.
“So we have to worry about Henry, but then you have 6-9 Asi (Taulava) down low and Garvo (Lanete) and Jonas (Villanueva) outside shooting the ball. Throw in the hustle and smarts of Kevin Alas, Sean Anthony, Glenn Khobuntin and Enrico Villanueva and we have really got our hands full.”
Alaska has its own stocked arsenal, led by La Dontae Henton, Calvin Abueva, Chris Banchero, Jayvee Casio and Sonny Thoss, but Compton agrees with Fernandez is saying the team that makes more stops will ultimately prevail.
“We will have to play tremendous, energetic team defense for four quarters,” said Compton.
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