MANILA - Alaska head coach Alex Compton is anticipating yet another sleepless night after the Aces came away with a massive 108-72 triumph over the TNT KaTropa in their quarterfinal game in the 2019 PBA Commissioner's Cup.

The KaTropa were massive favorites heading into Sunday's contest, having won eight straight games and finishing as the top seed in the elimination round, with a 10-1 win-loss record. Alaska, in contrast, sneaked into the playoffs as the No. 8 team, needing to beat Meralco in a playoff last Friday to punch their ticket.

Come game time, however, it appeared as though the Aces were the higher seed. They jumped on the KaTropa early and never let up, building a double-digit spread at the half and keeping their foot on the pedal in the second half. They would lead by 30 points in the fourth period and were barely threatened by TNT.

"I thought our entire coaching staff -- entire coaching staff, top to bottom -- they really helped prepare a game plan that worked tonight," said Compton, who admittedly did not expect to win by such a massive margin.

"We spent a bunch of time trying to figure out what to do with Terrence Jones and all the great shooters around him. It was a group brainstorm for a long time. Not a lot of sleep," he added.

Their efforts paid off, though Compton stressed that all credit went to the Alaska players who went out and executed their game plan to the letter.

"Sa huli, all that matters, whatever your game plan is, is do the players fight and scrap and try to make the plays? And the players did it," he said.

It was especially crucial on the defensive end, as Alaska had no single defender who could cover Jones, TNT's prolific import. With players like Carl Bryan Cruz, Kevin Racal, and Jeron Teng taking turns in harassing him, the former Houston Rocket was limited to just 19 points -- and committed a flagrant foul on Cruz at the end of the third period.

"It has to be all of us, just hustling and flying around out there, and the players did it, and I'm proud of them," said Compton.

As proud as he is, however, Compton is also the first to remind his players that they cannot afford to celebrate just yet.

Indeed, Compton feels that they also caught the KaTropa on a bad night. "They missed shots they normally make," he pointed out.

"Anybody, especially anybody from Alaska, if they were to judge them by this game would be foolish. Bad nights happen, they missed some shots. I think that's a big part of the game. If they knocked down some of the shots they usually knock down, it's a totally different ball game," he added.

With that in mind, Compton said there won't be any celebration from the Aces after their big triumph -- a sentiment that his players were quick to adopt.

"Yeah, it was a big game for us, but you know, first thing that coach said is that the game's over," said Chris Banchero. "They're gonna make adjustments, so we need to make our own adjustments as well."

"Enjoy lang namin ngayong gabi 'yung panalo namin, pero tomorrow, alam na namin 'yung mga adjustment namin, tsaka expect namin na babawi si Terrence Jones tsaka the rest of the team," said Cruz.

For Compton, this means another sleepless night as he tries to figure out what the TNT coaching staff will do to get Jones unleashed.

"What we have now earned ourselves is a chance to play a hungry, great, well-coached, disciplined, tough team on Wednesday, after a bad loss. So we're gonna have to be absolutely great if we're gonna make it happen," he said.

"I think you're gonna see how great Talk 'N Text is on Wednesday, and I'm not sleeping much again tonight."