Cone livid over Ross’ late-game 3, Austria defends SMB guard

Ginebra head coach Tim Cone. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

San Miguel Beer and Barangay Ginebra had another intense battle in Game 3 of the 2017 PBA Philippine Cup Finals Wednesday night.

The intensity, however, spilled over to the Smart Araneta Coliseum hallway with Gin Kings head coach Tim Cone and Beermen guard Chris Ross getting into a heated argument just shortly after the final buzzer sounded.

Cone was livid over Ross’ late 3-pointer with the game already decided in favor of San Miguel. The two engaged in a shouting match as both teams headed into their respective dugouts following the Beermen’s 99-88 win.

READ: Beermen pull ahead late to beat Kings, get 2-1 lead

Cone declined to comment about the incident while Ross thinks what happened was just part of basketball.

San Miguel’s Chris Ross. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

“There’s a shot clock, and they’re playing defense on me, so I took the shot, it’s basketball. I don’t think I did anything wrong,” he said.

San Miguel coach Leo Austria came to Ross’ defense.

READ: Despite big win, there’s room for improvement for Beermen

“Well, that was because of Chris Ross’ three pointer,” Austria said of the incident. “There was 26 seconds remaining and think he (Ross) felt he still needed to shoot to avoid a shot clock violation so he shot it. Unfortunately, it went in,” Austria recalled.

“But during the game they were actually letting Chris Ross shoot. They got mad, they thought it was disrespectful, but that’s not intentional. He was just pumped up. We were disappointed with our last game, we thought we’re going to win despite being down by 26 points in the first half.”

READ: Ginebra ties series

Ross finished with a game-high 24 points that went with eight assists in 40 minutes to lead the Beermen to a 2-1 series lead. He also had more free throws than the entire Ginebra team, going 9-of-13 from the line.