Beaten black-and-blue Sunday night, Magnolia coach Chito Victolero praised the enemy for a job well done before launching his attack on officiating and asking for fairness for the rest of the PBA Governors’ Cup best-of-seven title series.
“Coach Alex (Compton of Alaska) did a good job (in making the adjustments),” Victolero told reporters, shortly after a 100-71 loss.
“Coach Alex (also) did a good job calling the attention of the referees (after Game 2) about (how) my guards (are) playing defense.”
Victolero was wondering where Compton was coming from when the Alaska coach made his post-Game 2 rant on officiating.
“I kept reviewing the tapes (of the first two games) and saw that my players weren’t doing anything,” Victolero said in a calm voice. “For this game, the Alaska players were the ones holding my players and they weren’t calling the fouls. I just want consistency.”
Consistency in officiating has been an age-old problem in any league.
But PBA commissioner Willie Marcial bluntly denies that there’s something wrong with the way the first three games have been called by his officials.
“Yes, I’m calling their attention,” Victolero said of the referees. “Let’s be consistent.”
“I know that (what Victolero said) was a part of the coaches’ mind game for the series,” Marcial told the Inquirer over the phone as both tacticians want to gain an advantage over the other considering how close this series has been hyped.
“I don’t see a reason why he (Victolero) should call the attention of the referees.
“For me, the first three games of the series were the best-officiated games I have seen so far.”
Marcial said he issued a memo addressed to both Compton and Victolero for their statements on officiating.
Both coaches are off the hook for their previous comments, but Marcial won’t be lenient the next time around.
“They’ll be fined if they criticize officiating through the media again,” Marcial said.
“The right thing to do is address the technical committee or the commissioner.”
Game 4 is set Wednesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum at 7 p.m.
Magnolia won Game 1, 100-84, on Wednesday and executed better in the stretch to pull out a 77-71 triumph in Game 2, when Compton came out with his tirade about how Victolero’s guards were able to get away with several “karate chops.”
A total of 25 fouls were slapped on Magnolia and 24 against Alaska in Game 3.
But a big difference why the Aces were authoritative on Sunday was the fact that they turned the ball over just 15 times after averaging 25.5 errors in the first two.