Trillo remains upbeat despite Aces' poor start

MANILA, Philippines – The defending champion Alaska Aces are in danger of getting dethroned early after losing their third game in four starts in the shortened PLDT Home TVolution Commissioner’s Cup at the hands of Rain or Shine, 78-92, last Saturday.

The Aces lost despite drawing a huge game from reigning Best Import Rob Dozier, who pumped in 27 points on top of 20 rebounds and five blocks. Dozier though failed to get enough local support as no other Alaska player scored in double figures.

But despite the poor start, Alaska coach Luigi Trillo is not about to give up on his Aces that swept Brgy. Ginebra last season to win his first ever league title and the franchise’s first in the post-Tim Cone era.

“I’d like to look again at the positives. There are some things that we could have done there. We could have kept a good job on Jeff Chan, he went berserk. We missed 15 free throws. These things needed to be looked back. But we’ve got five more games, it’s a ton of games in basketball,” Trillo told reporters after their third loss.

Chan scored all of his 24 points in the second half that fended off the Aces’ rally.

But what Trillo saw was the effort of the whole team, which managed to get within three, 68-71, coming back from as much as 18-point deficit, 49-67, in the third quarter.

“I feel good that they competed today. Other days they would just bow their heads and give up early. Like anybody, they’re all competitors, they want to win. They feel terrible. I feel bad for them because I could have done a better job,” added Trillo, who was voted as Coach of the Year last season for his breakthrough title run.  

The Aces shot a woeful 35.5 percent from the field and connected only 15 of their 39 free throws.  Gone is the fluidity of their offense, which was a thing of beauty in the last Commissioner’s Cup.

“We’re a shadow of what we were last year but that’s part of basketball. We want them coming out confident.  We want them believing on themselves, want them understanding they have opportunity there, that they’ve got to compete and fight,” Trillo said.

“But at the end of the day you will look at it, we win as a team, we lose as a team.”