Chris Ross: It should’ve been an offensive foul

Chris Ross was the last person inside the dressing room of the San Miguel Beermen, allowing the deafening silence for him to cool off after being the most frustrated person in an emotionally-charged encounter.

An hour earlier, Ross was upset over a call in the Beermen’s 107-99 loss to Barangay Ginebra San Miguel late Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena when he was whistled for a foul against a driving Justin Brownlee with less than two minutes to play.

The Beermen were trailing 95-90, hoping to cut the deficit further after being down for most of the game when a turnover triggered a Brownlee fastbreak. Awaiting the Ginebra import was Ross, who jumped as high as he could in the hope of making a stop.

Referee Jimmy Mariano blew his whistle and gave Ross his only foul of the game. Ross argued that Brownlee should have been called for an offensive foul for warding off, with the video replay appearing to support his argument.

Instead , Mariano gave Ross a technical foul, causing the Beermen guard to blow his top and appearing to have shouted unprintables at the official. LA Tenorio converted the technical foul shot before Brownlee made both free throws, virtually allowing Ginebra to pull off an escape act.

Ross was eventually greeted by reporters upon emerging from the room. But not even his already calm and collected mood prevented him from continuing to argue his case.

“What do you all think?” said Ross, returning a question from one of the reporters in the group who asked if it was an offensive foul. “(The) ref made a call, gave me a technical, all I said was I thought it was an offensive foul, gave me a technical, gave (Ginebra) free throws. It was a one possession game at the time and I felt like we were getting the momentum.

“I mean, the refs can only do so much, it’s fast-paced. I guess they can go back and watch film, and correct it but it was tough for us because we were getting into our groove. Instead of us getting the ball down one possession they had the ball, they go up two possessions.

“Tough break of the game, you guys saw that, everyone who saw the game saw what happened. It was the call he made, it was a technical; I don’t think I deserved it, he did what he wanted to do,” he added.

The loss put the Beermen out of the solo lead and into a share of third with Ginebra at 6-2.

The Beermen were perhaps kicking themselves after starting out flat, allowing Ginebra to mount a huge lead. San Miguel battled back to pull within three, 93-90, but failed to get the needed breaks in the end.