Ross calls out Jones for intentional hit

MANILA, Philippines—Fireworks were aplenty during TNT’s 109-96 Game 1 win over San Miguel in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup finals Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Beermen played tenaciously, and sometimes a physical defense, in Terrence Jones the whole match but in an ironic twist of fate it was the KaTropa big man who was reprimanded for such antics.

Jones was called with an offensive foul after his right elbow made contact with Chris Ross’ face with 1:03 left in the third quarter causing a tussle between the players at center court.

Not only was Jones called for the offensive foul, but the whole TNT team was also called with a technical foul after the incident.

Jones was adamant he didn’t hit Ross on purpose, but San Miguel’s bulldog of a point guard says otherwise.

Ross even argued that Jones did the same to NorthPort’s versatile big man Moala Tautuaa during the elimination round resulting in the 6-foot-7 forward to wear a mask the rest of the conference.

“I felt he purposely went after my nose, I know you’ve seen Mo wears a mask now because the same thing happened to him,” said Ross. “He’s done it to multiple people where he is literally going for people’s noses.”

“I’m not the first one, Mo has a mask for it because he’s nose is broken. That’s what he [Jones] does.”

Ross was just one of the four defenders San Miguel threw at Jones with the Beermen going with Christian Standhardinger, Arwind Santos, and Kelly Nabong for the most part.

Jones, however, brushed off the differing defensive styles and finished with 41 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists, and three blocks.

In the basketball standpoint, Jones had the better outing but Ross was adamant that some of the things the 6-foo-9 big man did during the game were outside the realm of the sport.

“Those certain things aren’t basketball plays, if we’re going to play basketball we’ll play basketball,” said Ross who had seven points, six rebounds, seven assists, and four steals. “If you want to play dirty, we’ll play dirty too, we’ll take note of that going into Game 2.”