Bong Quinto couldn’t believe that he got ejected during Meralco’s 2022 PBA Philippine Cup debut versus Phoenix Super LPG on Saturday night.
The four-year pro was thrown out at the 10:28-mark of the final period and with the Bolts in midst of a rally. He was slapped with a technical foul for throwing the ball to an official, which happened to be crew chief Sherwin Pineda.
Such an action, according to league rules, merits an automatic ejection for a player — regardless if it was intended or not.
“Grabe. Since high school, college, this is the first time,” said the Colegio de San Juan de Letran alum, who left the game with 12 points.
Even Bolts head coach Norman Black aired his disagreement with the call. “I wasn’t too happy when he got thrown out of the game,” he said.
“Because it’s not like he threw the ball to the referee in a hard manner,” the champion mentor added.
“He just flipped it to him.”
That, however, didn’t disrupt in any way the momentum Meralco was building. Even without its primary defender on Matthew Wright, the Bolts completed the comeback from 16 down with the 109-98 victory.
“Bong was one of the reasons why we were able to turn the game around because of his defense,” Black said.
“We went to a box-and-1 against Matthew Wright and he was the one boxing him — or one-ing him, I should say.”
Quinto insisted that it was never his intention to throw the ball to the ref, but is apologetic for the possible misunderstanding that happened between him and Pineda, someone he said he’s known since he was younger.
“Wala naman akong intention na gawin yun. Pero yun nga, siyempre fault ko pa rin kasi ako ‘yung nag-act so hingi ako ng pasensya don kay Kuya Sherwin,” said the 27-year-old, who was also called for a pushing foul prior to the T.
“Gaya ng sabi ni Coach Norman, next time, pag may bad call, or may magandang tawag, accept na lang,” Quinto added.
“Akuin ko ‘yung sitwasyon, hingi ako ng pasensya sa kanya kasi siyempre yung respeto sa laro and siyempre respeto sa referee. It’s my fault.”
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