Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net
San Beda coach Boyet Fernandez leapt to Robert Bolick’s defense after he felt his star playmaker was unjustly ejected in his team’s 72-56 win over St. Benilde on Tuesday.
“You have to see that. You throw out a guy who is tackled, (who the other player is) trying to get injured, and then you call him and throw him out again? I really don’t know,” the mentor fumed in the press room.
With the Red Lions leading, 71-57, and the game already out of reach, Blazers guard Carlo Young took down Bolick, who was driving to the basket, hard late in the game. But Bolick and Clint Doliguez were also thrown out with 2:28 to play.
“It’s unethical. We were already up by 14 points and it’s a fastbreak. Why endanger a guy? And then punish a guy? I really don’t know what’s happening,” said Fernandez.
Fernandez couldn’t stop himself from wondering how the officials were able to come up with their decisions during the scuffle, sensing that there might be some kind of bias against San Beda.
“I don’t want to insinuate things. I don’t want to speculate, but it’s a won game already, and then that incident happened and they penalized the other team that did not start it,” he said. “If they want us to lose ball games, then let us lose that ball game in a proper way. God, it’s so bad. It’s wrong. (We had) six fouls in fourth quarter and the other team only has one foul, and then that happens. They tackle a player? Should he be thrown out? Yes, it should be an [ejection]. But why penalize the other guy?”
Fernandez said San Beda will file an appeal to downgrade Bolick’s disqualifying foul in time for its game against Mapua on Friday.
“We’ll appeal that for sure, but how can we appeal if there’s no report? We want to know what happened, why they called it for Robert? Why? They have to justify it,” he said.
Fernandez then turned his ire towards commissioner Bai Cristobal, noting that the official could have handled the matter better knowing that decisions made from that situation gravely impact some of the players’ career in the long run.
Bolick is in the running for the Most Valuable Player plum, with him currently sixth in the race with averages of 13.56 points, 7.56 rebounds, and 4.67 assists.
He also posted a near triple-double performance in the game with 14 markers, 11 dimes, and seven boards, but him being sent to the showers in the game against St. Benilde already rules him out of any individual plum at the end of the season.
“Why would you throw him out? My God, the guy was running for MVP. He destroyed the future of that guy,” he said.