Fresh Alaska Milk opens series vs injury-hit SMB

MANILA, Philippines – Alaska Milk is fresher, more prepared and will have no Junmar Fajardo to deal with when it takes on San Miguel Beer in the opener of their Smart Bro PBA Philippine Cup titular rematch at the Smart Araneta Coliseum tonight.

Fajardo escaped a major injury but will be out for Game One or even the next game with a swollen left knee caused by a bump by Rain or Shine forward Jireh Ibañes in the fateful Game Six of the SMB-ROS semifinal showdown.

“Thankfully, Junmar was spared of a major injury. But he’s hurt with a badly swollen knee. We’ll be waiting for his full recovery,” SMB coach Leo Austria told The STAR.

Nonetheless, a fierce grudge match is expected between the Beermen and the Aces, the league’s winningest ball clubs which engaged in a classic seven-game series last year.

“We still have Yancy de Ocampo and Gabby Espinas to man the slot. Kaya lang, Alaska will now enjoy the edge that would have been on our side in the presence of Junmar,” said Austria.

The 6-foot-10 behemoth was a huge factor in the Beermen’s conquests of the Aces in the all-Filipino finals and Governors Cup titular series last year.

But Alaska coach Alex Compton stresses this is a new series.

“Last year’s two finals series have been done for a long time, and San Miguel deserved both championships. This is a new series and a chance for us to try and dethrone them,” he said.

“Until someone beats San Miguel, they will be the champions. We are hoping we can be the team to do that. We have to outwork them in this series if we want to have a chance. For sure they will come out with guns ablaze with a lot of energy. Hopefully we can sustain our effort from this entire conference and rely on our defense to take us where we want to go,” he added.

Austria’s main concern is how to handle the Aces’ defense and transition offense – Alaska’s main weapons in topping the elimination round.

“An encouraging thought for us is the fact that we’ve handled their press in the past,” he said.

“We have to assert ourselves to set the pace. Even without Junmar, we’ll play a deliberate halfcourt game. That’s where we thrive at,” he added.

The Beermen aren’t expected to deviate from the plays they run against the Elasto Painters with less than 24 hours to prepare for Game One of the titular playoff.

“We opted to take a rest. We just walked through our plays in practice to preserve our energy for (tonight). Same thing on defense,” said Austria.

But no doubt, the Beermen will have big shoes to fill in on Fajardo’s absence. The reigning back-to-back MVP holder averages 26 points, 14.8 rebounds, 2.1 blocks and 1.6 assists.

San Miguel’s next leading scorers are Arwind Santos (15.1 ppg), Alex Cabagnot (13.6 ppg) and Marcio Lassiter (12.0 ppg).

The Aces sport a lot more balanced numbers with Vic Manuel (14.6) as the leading scorer. Then there are seven guys (Calvin Abueva, Chris Banchero, Joachim Thoss, Jvee Casio, Cyrus Baguio, RJ Jazul and Dondon Hontiverso) putting in norms ranging from 7.06 to 13.3.

They enjoyed a four-day break as they eased out the Globalport Batang Pier Tuesday. After dropping Game One of the semis, the Aces bounced back strong in Game Two and breezed through in the next three games for a dominant four-games-to-one win in the series.

From the elims, the Aces have lost only three games, fashioning out a 103-97 victory over the Beermen in their duel last Dec. 16.

Alaska has added ceiling from last year with Sonny Thoss now having key backups in Eric Menk, Noy Baclao and Sam Eman.