Alaska’s gamble pays off

Alaska turned its fortunes around after making some drastic changes in the 2019 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup.

After dropping their first five games, the Aces emerged victorious in five of their next sixth matches to catch the last bus headed to the quarterfinals.

They punched the seventh spot to arrange a quarterfinal duel with second seed Meralco, which will be coming with a twice-to-beat advantage.

“We’re happy with the way we finished the eliminations. We know that we had good chances against the number two team in Meralco,” said Alaska coach Jeffrey Cariaso, who had to shuffle his cards to squeeze out the best from his wards.

First, they let go of American coach Alex Compton in favor of Cariaso and traded defensive guard Ping Exciminiano to Rain or Shine for a two-way player in Maverick Ahanmisi.

Then, they made another big move by sending Carl Bryan Cruz to Blackwater in exchange for rookie big man Abu Tratter.

When star forward Jeron Teng returned from injury, the Aces made another big deal as they sent star playmaker Chris Banchero to Magnolia for a pair of role players in Rodney Brondial and Robbie Herndon.

All these moves paid a handsome reward as Alaska managed to catch fire and saved what looked like another heartbreaking conference.

Now comes the hard part — the quarterfinals.

“We have to do something special in the quarterfinals in order to upset Meralco. We have to work hard and stick to the game plan,” said Cariaso, adding that their season is still far from over.