After seeing his career game go to waste on Friday night, Rain or Shine rookie guard Maverick Ahanmisi said the Elasto Painters need to work better as a team in Game Five.
Ahanmisi scored a career-high 30 points in Game Four, shooting 9-for-16 from the field and 4-for-7 from three-point region. The rest of the Elasto Painters, however, shot only 23-for-62 from the field and were lethargic for most of the match.
The Alaska Aces ended up besting the Elasto Painters, 111-99 in Game Four as the PBA Commissioner’s Cup finals series got extended to another match.
“This one hurts obviously, but we can have a chance on Sunday,” Ahanmisi said after Game Four.
“Alaska came to play today. Everybody needs to do their part. The whole team did not come to play today in terms of defense. They shot 50 plus percent. No team is going to win like that.”
The Aces shot 54 percent overall, and 50 percent from three-point area. The Aces also had eight more assists than the Painters, 24-16.
“We couldn’t handle their pressure. We had 13 turnovers in the first half, I think, so that was what dug us a hole. On defense, we were too comfortable.”
The Elasto Painters trailed 54-39 entering the halftime break, and the deficit even grew to as much as 23 when Alaska closed the third quarter leading 90-67.
“Their confidence grew as the game went on. We did not come to play today,” Ahanmisi added.
Rain or Shine did trim the gap in the fourth period, getting to as close as 101-91, although the Aces held the fort towards the end.
The rookie, who has been playing splendidly throughout the conference, did take some positives from the loss, saying if more players perform well, Rain or Shine will be hard to stop.
“Definitely, if everybody, Paul (Lee) and Jeff (Chan) are our leaders, if they play well, we are going to be hard to beat,” Ahanmisi said.
“Hopefully, the way we played in the last couple of seconds will spill over to the next game.”
