Minglanilla: Do not punish us for their mistake

Minglanilla won’t be playing the five-minute extra time the technical committee wanted, in order to determine the winner of the controversial Governor’s Cup 2018 Basketball Tournament South Division Bracket 1 game against Naga last Monday night.

“The Mayor (Elanito Peña), Vice Mayor Selma, and the council all agree that we will not play the five minutes because Minglanilla was ahead by a point,” Minglanilla Municipal Administrator Concordio Mejias told Sun Star Cebu.

This, after the technical committee deemed it “fair” for Minglanilla and Naga to re-play the overtime period of their match, following the bizarre event where Naga was found to have fielded six players, instead of five, in the final play.

Minglanilla was up by a point with 0.7 seconds left in the game. Naga, however, fielded six players in the final play that left Justin Atilano free for the game-winning three-pointer to end the game in their favor, 93-91.

Minganilla immediately placed the game under protest and after two days of deliberation, the organizers sent out a resolution, Wednesday night saying that the officiating were at fault for failing to count the number of players on the court on inbound for the last play.

The resolution also stated that Naga Electrifiers coach Renato Alforque was also at fault for failing to effectively carry out the substitution he called and for the lack of dilligence for making sure they have the right number of people on the court.

“There was no doubt that the presence of six players in the play put the team at an advantage as far as executing the offense with 0.7 seconds left is concerened and put Minglanilla at a great disadvantage in executing the defense,” said part of the resolution.

“If it was not the fault of Team Minglanilla, why are we punished for it by playing five more minutes,” Mejias added.

The unique situation has put the technical committee in a quandary as it was unprecedented and sanction for such violation is not covered by Fiba laws.

Because of this, the committee decided to come up with sanctions for the erring parties: with the officials indefinitely suspended from officiating the Governor’s Cup games and the five-minute replay, which Minglanilla did not agree to.

“They should have made it a holdover so that the players will be able to concentrate in their game. Maybe Minglanilla and Naga will finish No. 1 and 2. They can face each other in the second level because it’s a Magic 8 single round robin,” suggested Mejias. /