Uytengsu tells Aces: One game at a time
With heart, passion and determination, Alaska finally played the ‘Alaska’ way of basketball.
That was how Alaska owner Wilfred Uytengsu described his team’s Game 4 win to avoid a sweep against Rain or Shine in their championship showdown in the Oppo PBA Commissioner’s Cup last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“Today we played our game,” Uytengsu told the Bulletin after Alaska’s 111-99 victory the denied the Elasto Painters a sweep in their best-of-seven series. “To me that was the big difference.”
“I think if we play our game… I think we have a good chance of winning, and that’s what happened tonight,” added Uytengsu in a hoarse voice.
Alaska is in the finals for the fourth time in the last five conferences – beating Meralco in Game 5 of their semifinal series. They are eyeing their 15th title and first since the 2013 Commissioner’s Cup.
Last season, the Aces twice made the finals but lost to San Miguel Beer on both occasions, suffering a painful Game 7 defeat in the Philippine Cup and were swept in a seven-game series in the Governors’ Cup.
In the previous Philippine Cup, Alaska was a win away from claiming the championship but the Beermen erased a 0-3 deficit to become the first team in league history to win a best-of-seven showdown with a 96-89 victory in Game 7 at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena.
Uytengsu said it is too early to think about duplicating SMB’s historic feat.
“It’s about one pedestrian at a time, one game at a time,” he said. “All we have to do is go out and play. If we play like this on Sunday, we’ll win. Play with heart, passion and determination, and play to our strength then we’ll do it.”
“Look, they’re a very talented team (Rain or Shine), a very hard working team, they’re well-coached team and they’re healthy, and we’re not. So we have to dig a lot deeper to win,” added Uytengsu.
The Aces are without two injured key players in power forward Vic Manuel (strained right calf muscle) and point guard Jvee Casio (bruised right knee) in this finals series.