Alaska owner Wilfred Uytengsu on finals match up: 'I don’t care who we play as long as we win'

ALASKA owner Wilfred Uytengsu refused to pick which team the Aces would want to face in the Smart Bro-PBA Philippine Cup Finals, saying what matters is the result of the title series that begins on either Sunday or Tuesday.

The Aces booked the first finals berth following a 118-89 rout of GlobalPort in Game Five on Tuesday and are now waiting for the survivor of the San Miguel Beer-Rain or Shine semifinals series that’s knotted at two games apiece.

“We’re going to play who wins,” said Uytengsu, who was prodded on to speak inside the press room after Aces coach Alex Compton’s post-game conference. “You be careful what you ask for.”

Uytengsu admitted the Elasto Painters are the less experienced team than the Beermen in championship round.

“We want to play Rain or Shine because maybe they don’t have the tradition and the experience of San Miguel, but they’re very talented,” the Alaska boss said. “They have a lot of weapons.”

But Uytengsu is not discounting another rematch with their finals tormentors in the Beermen.

“You wish to play San Miguel for redemption and you come up with an extremely well-coached team.”

If they face SMB, Alaska will be motivated by its loss in the last all-Filipino conference finals that wasn’t decided until Arwind Santos hit a pressure-packed three-pointer in the waning seconds.

“Last year’s all-Filipino was such a painful loss, because we were there,” Uytengsu said. “We clawed ourselves back from double-digit figures in the second half in each of the game we won and in Game Seven, we clawed back from twenty-two points.”

“Either way, it’s going to be hard,” he was quick to add. “To be the best, you have to beat the best, so I don’t care who we play as long as we win.”

“I would love nothing more than to present rings for our next all-Filipino win.”