The Alaska Aces opened their 2019 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup on a high note as they down Columbian Dyip,, 111-98 for their first game of the season last Sunday, May 19 at the SM Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena.
Robert Daniels had a double-double performance of 25 points and 16 rebounds, while Chris Banchero and Simon Enciso succeeded as well with 20 and 19 points respectively.
For Columbian Dyip, it was Kyle Barone who had a phenomenal game with a double-double of 30 points and 22 rebounds, while CJ Perez totalled 19 points and six rebounds. Rashawn McCarthy and JP Calvo contributed double digits as well with 13 and 10 points respectively, but it was not enough to prevent the Aces’ breakthrough third quarter, where they outscored Dyip, 34-13.
After the game, Alaska head coach Alex Compton talked about wanting to redeem themselves from the All-Filipino Cup, stating, “We have a really good group of guys. We’ve talked about holding each other accountable. There was just fundamental stuff that we did wrong [in this game].”
When evaluating their opponents’ performance, Coach Alex also shared, “I thought the first half, our defense was bad, honestly. I thought it was bad. I thought we had way too many breakdowns. That’s not to take away from Columbian, they did a good job. Some of those baskets were garbage baskets,” elaborating, “We’ve got to do a better job. You talk about that at halftime. The guys responded. I don’t know the exact stats yet but I thought generally, our guards really stepped up in the second half.” He adds, “I didn’t do anything magical. They just came out of the third quarter and they decided to buckle down. I’m proud of their third quarter. That was really good,” concluding, “Always good to start off with a win. This game was really important for us.”
Compton and the rest of his team will have a chance to continue their positive run next Wednesday, May 22 against NorthPort Batang Pier at the Ynares Center in Antipolo. Columbian will go head-to-head against the Meralco Bolts two days later at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.