Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
In the ugliness of TNT’s 100-94 loss to defending champion San Miguel in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup, head coach Nash Racela decided to look for a silver lining.
The KaTropa’s finals rematch against the Beermen had a playoff atmosphere that saw two players from each side got thrown out of the game.
The tension-filled duel, however, was what Racela deemed beneficial for his team moving forward.
“This is the kind of game that will just make us better as a team,” said Racela Saturday at Mall of Asia Arena. “We identified that we need to play with a lot of energy and urgency.”
The game’s first ejections were TNT guard Terrence Romeo and San Miguel wing Marcio Lassiter who got into a verbal altercation in the second quarter.
It took less than a minute of playing time in between the two technical fouls that were called against Romeo and Lassiter as the two were tossed with 3:40 left in the game.
Racela said Romeo didn’t talk to him after the incident.
Tensions didn’t end there as San Miguel’s Arwind Santos and TNT’s Anthony Semerad were thrown out after a scuffle at the 7:36 mark of the fourth quarter.
The two got tangled up after going for a rebound as Santos pulled Semerad down and while they were on the floor the two immediately exchanged elbows.
One of the referees tried to intervene to separate the two before security personnel and team officials from both sides eventually managed to cool things off.
Santos and Semerad’s ejections became the game’s turning point as San Miguel went on to take a 14-5 run for a 97-88 lead with 3:13 left.
“The referees allow a lot of physicality, but they just have to be consistent,” said Racela, whose team sit at the fourth spot with a 6-3 record. “One of our players got thrown out and that’s also what happened to the other team.”
“I think it was equal in that regard.”