Atoy Co takes off shirt, takes anger out on referees

Coach Atoy Co Photo by Tristan Rafael Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

In the hotly contested game between Mapua and Lyceum on Friday, coach Atoy Co took off his shirt as the game came to a close.

The reason was not the temperature, but rather, in protest of what he felt was “a very inconsistent” officiating in the second half of the game.

“I really had to make a statement,” said the PBA legend on the heels of the Cardinals’ 109-95 win over the Pirates. “I’m very sorry that I did something stupid in the fourth quarter just to make a statement and I was thrown out.”

With Lyceum slowly inching in on what was originally a 43-point advantage for Mapua, Co was whistled at for a technical foul for continuous complaining with 1:45 left in the game. It was when Co took off his shirt as he continued to disagree with the referees, prompting the officials to once again slap him with a technical, that he was ejected from the game.

“There are so many calls that I felt that the referees are trying to decide the game,” he said, singling out the inconsistencies in calling the hand-check fouls which he felt got Lyceum closer in the end game.

Though he apologized for the incident, Co was relentless in pointing out the job the referees did in the game.

“I know that sometimes, you need to make a statement. I know they were going to call a technical on me, but I had to do it to wake (the referees up), that it’s no longer ok with me whatever they are doing,” he said. “It’s very inconsistent, and I felt the referees just wanted to make the game look better.”