ALASKA coach Alex Compton made sure GlobalPort and its coach, Franz Pumaren, had no ill will toward the Aces after Calvin Abueva still took and made a shot in the final play even with the result already decided on Wednesday.
Asked in the post-game press conference what they were talking about as they shook hands following the final buzzer of the Aces’ 95-84 win, Compton bared he apologized to Pumaren after Abueva put back his own miss at the buzzer to give them an 11-point win.
Compton said it was simply for the Aces to earn a better quotient – in case the Aces’ postseason fight goes down the wire.
“We talk about honor at Alaska and I always want to honor our opponents,” Compton began. “I have tremendous respect for coach Franz, and this is stuff I’ve said behind closed doors, so wala namang bola dito – I think he’s one of the best coaches in the country."
“And there’s an (unwritten) rule before in coaching that you never score like the last basket we scored,” he added.
[See Pain persists for Abueva, but desire to win for Alaska far greater]
But Compton recounted the Aces’ campaign in the last Governors’ Cup, saying a similar possession cost the Aces the twice-to-beat advantage as they dropped to the sixth seed, losing to Ginebra, which had a win-once incentive.
“Whereas if we had a couple more baskets, we’re in the twice-to-beat with a better chance to go deeper,” he said. said. “So I just wanted to tell him, ‘Hey, I’m really sorry. We weren’t trying to ruin anything up. It’s just the quotient really matters in an eleven-game conference, and that basket – who knows – I’ve had that happen twice now in my PBA career where we got on a bad end of a quotient and we lost a significant advantage.”
“I won’t have any problem with any coach that does that to us,” he added. “It’s just a coaching ethic thing and I just wanted to make sure it as clear because I have high respect for him.”
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