The Alaska Aces is scheduled for a head-to-head game against the Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok at 6:45 P.M. on October 17, 2020 live from the AUF Sports Arena & Cultural Center in Angeles City, Pampanga.
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The Aces will try to end their two-game losing slump while the Hotshots are eyeing for their back-to-back victory when the PBA restart continues inside the PBA bubble tonight in Pampanga.
For the first time, now Hotshots guard Chris Banchero will finally face for the first time his previous squad, the Alaska Aces where he helped to reach the Finals several times.
The situation is also similar to the now with the Aces camp, Rob Herndon and Rodney Brondial.
The trade got completed last year when Alaska made some manpower movement to boost their upcoming campaigns and one of it is the 2020 Philippine Cup.
Talking about Alaska’s player movement, they will welcome the arrival of Maverick Ahanmisi who is also a late acquisition last conference via a trade with the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters.
However, head coach Jeff Cariaso lost one of his dependable guards as Kevin Racal tore his right ACL from their previous outing.
Though Alaska has some minor hiccups in their rotation, their tonight’s opponent won’t turn down their guards knowing that the Aces are hungry to log their first win of the conference.
“We expect a very hard game,” said Victolero during his interview with the media last Thursday.
“Kasi makakalaban namin galing sa talo,eh. Kagabi (Wednesday) pa lang, sinabi ko na sa kanila na Alaska will come out very, very strong because… 0-2 they have that sense of urgency to, you know, fight back, play hard. Nasa amin na iyon kung papaano kami mag-hahanda, kung papaano namin titingnan as a whole ‘yung game na iyon.”
Magnolia is very well-known of their pesky guards and one of the secret sauce of head coach Chito Victolero. For Alaska, they felt that they have the skills to equalize and make the playing field even.
“I like this match-up kasi feeling ko we can also match up with them,” said the man who is known as the “Jet” during his PBA heydays.
“First of all we have to be ready for their pressure. Alam naman natin na they are guard-heavy. Makukulit mga guards nila so we have to be able to handle the pressure better,” said Cariaso.