Rain or Shine head coach Caloy Garcia insisted that Rome Dela Rosa’s triple in the fourth quarter of their Game Seven clash with the Magnolia Hotshots in the 2019 PBA Philippine Cup semifinals should not have counted, Sunday night.
Dela Rosa fired a triple with 3:28 to go as the shot clock expired to give the Hotshots a 53-50 lead. The entire Elasto Painters side then argued that lengthy forward was still touching the ball when the buzzer sounded.
Replays showed that Rain or Shine were right, but the officials stuck to the referee’s decision.
“Well, ako nakita ko kasi nasa kamay pa ni Rome nung nag-buzzer. Ewan ko, baka biglang inantok lang siguro yung may hawak ng pito,” expressed the outspoken bench strategist.
“I felt that it shouldn’t have been counted.”
Garcia asserted that the shot turned things worse for the Elasto Painters, as it swung momentum in the Hotshots’ favor. Magnolia went on to take the 63-60 win that forged a rematch with the San Miguel Beermen in the championship round.
“Ganun talaga basketball. If it happened under the last two minutes they can review it. In the last three minutes nangyari yun eh. Basically, that was the biggest shot for me in the game,” said Garcia. “It was a big shot.
“If they didn’t count it we would’ve won, pero ‘di rin natin alam eh. Ganun talaga.”
Rain or Shine were further disappointed since they might have emerged victorious had they protected their 17-point lead in the third quarter, thanks to Beau Belga and James Yap.
But Garcia isn’t dwelling on the loss, since their sights are now set on the next conference.
“It’s disappointing losing a game like this. We had a chance, we went up by seventeen, but nawala yung composure. What’s disappointing nga, sabi ko, they started the third quarter well but nawala yung sistema namin,” he said.
“Our offense was off. I told them nung halftime yung nerves nila showed when he only had seven points in the first quarter. Sabi ko it happens, most of us it’s our first time to play in a Game Seven – even me as a coach first time,” he continued.
“But overall we had a good conference. We just have to look for the next one and hope we get a good import.”
