COACH BOYET CRIES ‘FOUL’
SAN Beda University leveled the seniors’ basketball Finals with Letran of Season 95 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association on Friday, but Red Lions Head Coach Boyet Fernandez called for better officiating as the series go down to a winner-take-all Game Three, on Tuesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Fernandez said the referees were trigger happy at slapping fouls on his Red Lions.
“I just hope that it would be a fair game. For me, just make the right [calls],” said Fernandez in the post-Game Two press conference.
Fernandez said his Cameroonian player, Donald Tankoua, became a target. The best foreign player of the season was handicapped with three fouls early in the game and finished with only two points, three rebounds and one steal.
“They [fouls on Tankoua] were ‘baby’ fouls,” Fernandez said. “But if [Letran’s] Larry Murang dunks on Donald, a bit of a scratch and he is called for a foul.”
The San Beda coach also asked Commissioner Antonio Pujante to clamp down on erratic calls made during Game Two.
Fernandez cited as example a shot clock violation on Letran that prevented his team from completing a fastbreak play in a crucial stretch of the fourth quarter.
“I hope the Commissioner understands where I am coming from,” Fernandez said. “I am not questioning the calls of the referees I just want them to review their calls. I’m not sourgraping, I just want a fair share of the officiating.”
San Beda racked up 23 fouls in Game two— four in the first quarter, six in the second, seven in the third and also six in the fourth. Letran, meanwhile, had 17 fouls—four in each first three quarters and five in the fourth.
“I just want to protect my players because they are young,” he said. “They have to teach the boys to play a fair game, a fair officiating.”