Only 42.9 seconds were remaining in NLEX’s 2019 PBA Commissioner’s Cup clash with the Phoenix Pulse Fuel Masters Friday evening, but Road Warriors head coach Yeng Guiao failed to stay until the final buzzer.
The outspoken bench strategist got tossed out of the tightly-contested game for incurring back-to-back technical fouls for use of profane language, as he lashed out on the referees which he felt were not doing their jobs well.
“I don’t think the officiating was up to par to the effort that both teams put into this game,” expressed Guiao.
“It’s just frustrating. ‘Yung mga calls, they mean a lot to the teams, but pagdating sa mga referee parang walang kwenta. They don’t feel what we feel. There’s a problem with that,” he added, as the game saw a total of 66 fouls called
“‘Di nila nararamdaman ‘yung nararamdaman namin. That’s where my frustration comes from.”
Despite such, the Road Warriors managed to come out on top, 87-85, to end their campaign in the mid-season joust on a winning note. And Guiao could only breathe a sigh of relief as survived a “badly-officiated” game.
“We survived a badly-officiated game — buti na-survive namin,” said Guiao, whose team finished with a 3-8 card.
Still, a win is a win for Guiao. For the decorated tactician, the win serves as good send-off to the Road Warriors heading into the season-ending 2019 Governors’ Cup, which is expected to raise its curtains on September 20.
“Anyway, this is just a send-off for us on a winning note. We’ll take the win however it is. We’ll start preparing for the next conference,” said Guiao.
“We’ll have a short break but after that, we’ll start working on our preparations.”
