Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—NLEX head coach Yeng Guiao was left with mixed emotions after his team’s sorry loss to NorthPort in the 2019 PBA Commissioner’s Cup on Saturday.
Guiao said he was pleased with the Road Warriors’ showing despite the 83-79 setback having played minus an import, but at the same time, furious over a foul called against his guard Kyles Lao with 52 seconds left.
“I’m actually happy with our effort. We played without an import but we had a chance to win the game in the last one or two possessions,” Guiao told reporters.
“We got a really ugly break. I don’t think the foul on Kyles Lao was something that you should call in a situation like that. That’s a really bad call and it cost us the game.”
The foul resulted to NorthPort guard Nico Elorde making one of two free throws that gave the Batang Pier a 79-77 edge.
“I’m not surprised that people are complaining about the officiating. My problem with that call is (technical director) Eric Castro justified it,” said Guiao, who also got a technical foul for arguing the call. “I think that’s stupidity. That is a stupid way to justify that call. They justified it by saying there was contact. The problem is not all contacts are foul. To me, that is a stupid way to justify that.”
“Sobrang nipis. And previous to that action, if they want to call a foul, we just watched the tape, Sean Anthony was climbing all over the back of Kenneth Ighalo. They did not call that but they called an itsy bitsy physical contact. To me, that’s not justifiable.”