Abueva after Alaska loss: ‘Malakas ‘yung kalaban, malakas pati sa taas’

MANILA, Philippines – Calvin Abueva spoke to the media for exactly 22 seconds after the twice-to-beat Alaska was upended by Barangay Ginebra on Tuesday, February 7.

Visibly disappointed from the loss, Abueva hinted at breaks of the game leaning more toward Ginebra.

“Hanggang dulo may kasama. Hindi natin alam kung sino,” the 29-year-old Abueva said of the Gin Kings, who overcame the Aces, 108-97, to move on to the 2017 PBA Philippine Cup semifinals. (Until the end they had help. We don’t know who.)

“Basta ‘yung amin naglaro kami ng maayos,” added Abueva, who normally avoids the media. He finished with another team-high 29 points with 13 rebounds.

“Hindi naman natin maaano, twice-to-beat naman kami. Siyempre alam naman natin na malakas ‘yung kalaban, malakas pati sa taas. Wala na tayong magagawa.”

(We played well. We can’t say anything, we had the twice-to-beat. Of course we know the opponent is strong, but they’re also strong up there. We can’t do anything about it.)

Alaska dictated the pace and held on to the lead through the first half, but found themselves thrust back into their third quarter waterloo similar to what transpired in game 1.

Ginebra opened the second half with a 7-0 spurt that set a new tone for the game and they went on to build a double-digit cushion that they did not relinquish until the end.

The Aces were whistled for 41 fouls on Tuesday night, which led to 34-of-44 free throw shooting for the Gin Kings. Alaska, in contrast, was 17-of-31 from the stripe with Ginebra called for 31 fouls.

Veteran forward Vic Manuel, who carried the other half of the scoring load with 23 points, felt Alaska let this one slip away from their grasp.

“Mistake namin e. Nagpabaya kami. Tsaka Ginebra mahirap talaga kalaban,” he said, lamenting Alaska’s 17 turnovers that led to 23 points for Ginebra. “Bad execution namin. Masyado nagmamadali.”

(It was our mistake. We weren’t careful. And Ginebra is really a tough opponent. It was bad execution on our part. We rushed things.)

Alaska got beat in a game in which many cylinders clicked for Ginebra with young guys stepping up to fill the void left by the injured Joe Devance (foot).

Aljon Mariano posted a career-high 20 points with 8 rebounds, while fellow ex-University of Santo Tomas star Kevin Ferrer had 15 markers and 5 boards. Scottie Thompson rounded out the double-digit scoring for the Gin Kings with 10 points on top of 9 rebounds.

LA Tenorio likewise broke free with 31 points, including 13 in another pivotal third quarter that echoed the events of game 1.

“Tonight we got beat by a better team. They outplayed us,” said Alaska head coach Alex Compton. “Two games this conference we did a good job defensively against LA (Tenorio) but you can only keep a good man down for so long.” – Rappler.com