The titanic clash between Meralco and Alaska was expected to be a grind-out affair. However, only one team showed up at the SM Mall of Asia Arena
In a match worthy of being tagged as titanic, with both teams hungry for a win — one was coming off a loss, while the other was gunning for a 5-0 start — the Bolts surprisingly turned the tables and made it a one-sided clash.
The final result may been a narrow, 99-91 victory due to the late-game scoring surge by the Aces, but it was all Meralco throughout the match — they even led by as high as 25 at a point, 91-66, with 6:01 left to play.
“Without question, Meralco deserved that game. They kicked our butts. They deserved the win. They outworked us,” admitted Aces head coach Alex Compton about the loss, which drags their card to 4-1.
“Hope it’s a little wake up for us.”
Compton stated the obvious. Alaska indeed were outworked, and their team rebounds spoke highly of it. Alaska only grabbed 34 boards — far different from the average of 49.0 rebounds they had in the last four games.
Meralco, meanwhile, easily earned 60 caroms — 26 of them coming from import Alex Stepheson. The 60 rebounds that Alaska allowed proved to be too much, after they had let their opponents grab just an average of 47 rebounds in the previous four games.
“They almost doubled us in rebounds. Good luck with that. You can’t win a lot of games when you get doubled in rebounds,” rued Compton.
And the 43-year-old tactician partly blames himself for not preparing his wards mentally, resulting in the unwanted outcome.
“Kinausap ko sila a few days ago about how tough Meralco is. We gotta be ready to work. But I didn’t do a good job in getting us mentally to that spot,” he lamented.
“Today we got outworked. It’s not acceptable. And they clearly deserve the win. Excellent game, excellent coaching by Norman and staff, and they deserve it.”
But their first loss in the import-laden conference will only help the Aces out, as it brought realizations for the team as they continue to move forward and tread along the tourney.
“Tonight, it exposed our flaws how we’ve been playing,” Compton conceded.
“They exposed our flaws out, and how much we need to work to get to where we wanna be.“
