Cagebelles protest defeat to Thais, seek Fiba help

JAKARTA—Standing side-by-side with their male counterparts during the basketball awarding ceremony of the 26th Southeast Asian Games Sunday night, the Philippine cagebelles still had a golden feeling in them.

“We know we won that one (match against Thailand), and the country knows that we did as well,” said Cynthia Tiu, team manager of the women’s five. “And because of the effort that the players gave, we will fight until this is settled with the Fiba itself.”

Tiu filed an appeal with the technical committee of these Games immediately after losing to the Thais in overtime, 73-75, last Friday.

The subject of the appeal was the fact that the Thai was stepping on the three-point line when she made the triple that sent the game into overtime, and that she took a long time to launch the attempt after Thailand inbounded with just 1.5 seconds left.

Armed with evidence from YouTube, Tiu said she is taking her case directly to Fiba.

“The videos are clear that, first, the Thai player was stepping on the line, and that two, it took her such a long time to get that shot off,” Tiu said.

“What’s funny was that the technical committee here said that they are ‘discouraging’ protests because of the fee of 2,000 Swiss francs [about P94,284]. I don’t care about the amount because the girls gave it their all. That’s a small amount to pay.”