Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Following his team’s 30-point beating at the hands of San Miguel Beer in Game 1 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup finals, Alaska coach Alex Compton took the blame for the lopsided of a loss.
“Sorry guys, I was looking at the stats and unfortunately, there’s no stat for being outcoached,” admitted an apologetic Compton upon entering the press room at the Mall of Asia Arena.
He reiterated: “I was outcoached. That’s just what happened in that game.”
Compton and his Aces succumbed to the surprisingly more energetic Beermen, 108-78, on Friday (July 10).
Read: Beermen blast Aces to take 1-0 lead
San Miguel Beer was fresh from a semifinal conquest of the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters on Wednesday (July 8), but looked more well-rested than the Aces in Friday’s (July 10) one-sided affair.
Maybe the long break spelled doom for Alaska, said Compton.
“This is what Im afraid of when we had a break. I hadn’t been in a team that had a long break going to a big series. I felt like we’ve lost our flow,” said the Alaska tactician, whose team swept the Star Hotshots in the semifinals hence the long layoff.
The in-form Beermen also did a tremendous job on defense as the Aces struggled to get into a groove almost the entire way, shooting just 35-percent from the field.
“I credit San Miguel for helping us to miss. They did a good job defensively,” he said. “We’ve missed the shots we usually make.”
So tight was San Miguel’s defense that Alaska import Romeo Travis scored just 14 points on a putrid 6-of-18 shooting while his counterpart, Arizona Reid, went berserk and scattered 32 points.
Compton believes his team needs a big adjustment before heading into Game 2 on Sunday (July 12) at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.
“I feel like the scores are not indicative of who they are and who we are,” he said. “Whatever we did tonight that’s not gonna work next game, that’s for sure.”
