PBA Finals: Alaska tries to stop San Mig sweep
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 17 Jul 2015
San Miguel Beer and Alaska Milk collide in game 4 of their PBA best-of-seven Governors' Cup finals series tonight with the Beermen seeking for all the marbles at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
The Aces, on the other hand, try to extricate themselves from a 0-3 hole they dug themselves in in the lone 7 p.m. collision, a mission no team has succeeded since the best-of-seven format was institutionalized by the country's one-and-only pro-league.
Since the first-to-win-four finale was initially played during the 1982 Reinforced Filipino Conference that saw Toyota nosed out, who else, but San Miguel Beer, 4-3, no club has rebounded from 0-3 down to claim the title.
Fourteen (11 in the title payoff) that incurred such a deficit were all waylaid down the losing end, according to league chief statistician Fidel Mangonon.
Only one team though, Ginebra San Miguel, was able to rise from the 1-3 grave to go all the way and crown itself the First Conference crown at the expense of Shell in 1991.
And that is what the Aces will be trying to accomplish in today's setto-- salvage a victory, no matter how it seems impossible and dupicate what the Gin Kings did 24 years ago.
"Laban nang Laban" (fight and fight until the end) that has always been our trademark and that's exactly what we will be doing tomorrow," Alaska'a rookie coach Alex Compton vowed in an interview with this writer on he eve of his team's do-or-die battle.
"Patay kung Patay, yeah that's it," Compton added in halting Tagalog . "We couldn't do anything else anymore naman eh but fight, fight, and fight."
"Well, nandoon na kami sa pinto ng langit, bakit di pa namin pasukin (Se're already a the door of heaven, so, why can't we continue and enr heven)" SMB mentor Leo Austria, or his part, philosophized.
Austria though, who beat Compton and th Aces in annexing the league's 40th Season opening Philippine Cup, 4-3, cautioned his boys from becoming complacent.
"I told the boys during our meeting prior to today's practice that, indeed, we're almost there, pero huwag tayong kasisiguro, Alaska is axpable of coming back which they have done before. Kaya kailangan naka-focus kami sa dapat naming gawin bukas," Austria warned.
"True, we're already at the door, but we still have to go inside and see what's there to see," he said. "Mahirap naman yung mapagsarahan kami ng pinto nang nasa labas kami at ang kalaban ang nasa loob."
"Kailangan tapusin na main bukas (We have to finish it tomorrow). he emphasized. "Totoong wala pang nakaka-ahon sa 0-3, eh there's always a firts time, di ba? Eh huwag namang sa amin mangyari yung first time na yun."
Austria heaped to the resolve and unselfishness of his Beeermen. "Talagang determinado ang mga bata na manalo (My boys are really determined to win). the first three games, they've been playing unselfishly,"
He singled out Arwind Santos' unselfish games, saying, "Arwind has been sacrificing his shooting by his defense against all the men he's been assigned to defend, including Alaska import Romeo Travis."
Compton admitted he and is aces were beaten black and blue the fire three games. and that vaulting back to win it all is almost impossible, but "we have to be back and we can only do so if we can recover everything we had one in the elimination round where we emerged the no. 1 team."
"I doff my hat to San Miguel, they're a team of very strong and very ingelligent players," he said by way of paying tribute to the Beermen. "But we can match them. Winning four straight is very very tough, but we'll see if we can do it."
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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