Rain or Shine Elasto Painters head coach Caloy Garcia was left perplexed Wednesday night, following the end of his side’s three-game winning streak into the hands of the all-around Chris Ross and the San Miguel Beermen.
And his confusion, unsurprisingly, stems from the way the referees blew their whistle on certain occasions.
“You know, sometimes, you don’t really get the breaks of the game,” rued Garcia after the Elasto Painters’ 96-103 defeat at the SMART Araneta Coliseum. “Sa akin lang naman its part of the game, we just have to find ways.”
What drew the 13-year coach’s ire in particular was a play in the game’s final minute, where Chris Ross drove hard to the rim. Garcia thinks that Ross should’ve been whistled for a foul, for hooking J’nathan Bullock.
“I just felt yung isa lang, there’s one call that I didn’t understand the hook on Ross on our import. It was clearly a hook right in front of the referee,” he said. “It should have been an offensive foul, I don’t know why it wasn’t called an offensive foul.
“For me, it’s just like you have the effort of your players playing hard then you see them working hard on defense then they just won’t call it, di naman pwedeng excuse na di mo naman nakikita dahil one-on-one lang naman yun,” he added.
“But like I said, it’s breaks of the game.”
Another dubious call took place with less than six minutes to go in the payoff period. James Yap’s three-pointer trickled out, but Gabe Norwood was there at the right time as he rose up and put it back in with a two-handed jam.
But the refs called a no-basket, for what they saw was an offensive interference — even if the ball was, obviously, already away from the cylinder.
“I’m still confused,” rued Norwood of the call. “I was gone for two weeks, so I don’t know if things changed. I thought I tipped the ball in initially with my off hand, my left hand. I did touch the rim with my right hand.
“But, I don’t know. Things happened quickly.”
Still, damage has been done. Rain or Shine is now 4-3 in the standings, tied with the Beermen. But Garcia and his team remain composed, for they still have a chance to clinch a better position for the 2017 Governor’s Cup playoffs.
“Well we’re still in it,” said the youthful tactician of Rain or Shine’s Top Four aspirations.
“I told the players na okay, given that we lost this game, we have to forget about this game and we still have to think of the other games.”
