Belo, Cruz laugh off scuffle after double technical

Mac Belo goes up for a shot. PBA IMAGES

Carl Bryan Cruz and Mac Belo go way back, and even a heated scuffle during the match between Alaska and Blackwater won’t dampen that friendship between the former Far Eastern University teammates.

The two got entangled with 5:18 left in the game and Alaska nursing a 74-72 lead, after Belo tried to snatch the ball away from Cruz who rebounded the former’s miss.

And during the scrum, the two former Tamaraws were both called with technical fouls.

After Alaska won the game 88-84, the two knew they would just share a laugh if ever it gets brought up between them.

“That’s nothing, that’s just how we express our love for each other, of course we both want to win and I think we got overboard with out aggressiveness,” said Belo in Filipino Saturday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“I just wanted to get the ball and I was surprised that there was a technical foul. There’s nothing personal on that play, we’ll just laugh at it.”

Cruz, who got the last laugh after his team won, said what happened was just “tough love” between them, although he was disappointed that they were called with the technical foul.

“It was just tough love between the two of us and we’re just very competitive people,” said Cruz in Filipino. “Outside the court we’re really buddies. It’s just disappointing that we were called with the technical foul.”

Belo, who got called with his first technical foul, couldn’t help but poke fun at the situation posting on his Facebook account that Cruz should pay for the fine.

“First tech ko sa PBA yun Carl Bryan Cruz, bayaran mo yun (That was my first technical in the PBA, pay for it Carl Bryan Cruz),” Belo posted on his Facebook account.