Panthers cleared of ‘bench-clearing’

After all what they've been going through, the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) can now heave a sigh of relief.

This after the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) Commissioner's Office has cleared the Panthers of 'bench clearing' infraction during their tumultuous match against the University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters in the 17th CESAFI men's basketball tournament last Thursday night at the Cebu Coliseum.

The Webmasters won, 81-55, in a one-side match that did not even finish because the entire USPF Panthers squad was ejected for what was initially decided by the officiating officials as a 'benchclearing' violation by the Panthers.

Pandemonium broke out in the final 1:17 mark of the contest when game official Ronald Yamelo was brazenly confronted by the angry Panthers for his alleged derogatory remarks against USPF pointguard Clyde Avancena.

The Panthers got mad when Yamelo warned Avancena for intentionally throwing the ball hard towards the direction of Yamelo during an inbound play. Luckily, Yamelo was able to dodge Avancena’s wayward pass intended for Lyndon Colina before the ball hit the side of the railings.

Avancena insisted that his pass was purely a missed one but Yamelo issued him a grave threat out of it. “The referee told me, ‘you did it on purpose. I almost got hit, you should watch out when we get outside,’” the playmaker said.

Infuriated by what the ref had uttered at their teammate said, all hell broke loose when some players from the Panthers bench tried to gang up onYamelo.

Fortunately, the two police officers securing the game aided by some pacifists quickly put the situation under control.

After slapping

the Panthers with a benchclearing infraction, Yamelo together with fellow refs Jay Calma and Melvin Caumeran headed to their locker room even if the game wasn’t finished yet in an unprecedented 'walkout' by game officials never seen before in any basketball leagues.

But after an investigation conducted by CESAFI deputy Commissioner Atty. Marven Pañares, his fellow deputy Danny Duran owned up to the fault as he just wanted to prevent the tension from escalating further.

"All I wanted is to prevent things to escalate. One minute and 17 seconds is a lot of time, many things can happen in that span. That is why I declared bench clearing in order to stop any possible trouble to happen," Duran said.

Though spared from the grave offense, four USPF players in Kenneth Cada, Edwin Villarta, Jhmer Ranceli and Ranje Mangyao were slapped with one-game suspension along with assistant coaches Alan Cabatingan and Alocillo for entering the court without permission. That's a total of P30,000 in fines plus four hours of community service for each of the erring player under the supervision of the Cebu City Sports Commission.

Additionally, the CESAFI won't field referees Yamelo, Caumeran and Calma in any college games pending the investigation that will be conducted further by the Commissioner's Office who were subject to complaint of USPF. The Panthers also complained against Duran, technical chief Ed Aguelo and the table officials for their actions during the game.

For USPF head coach Albert Alocillo, what happened was a wake-up call for the league.

“We are not condoning the acts of our players, it’s only that we have a responsibility to protect their rights,” said Alocillo. “I believe what happened was a wake-up call for the CESAFI, that the league has to improve on its officiating especially on the professionalism its referees."

of