Toledo wins, loses protest, bombs out of Gov. Cup
Toledo City Energy and Talisay City Aqua Stars finished their quarterfinal assignments with separate victories as the South Division Quarterfinal Round of the 2017 Cebu Governor's Cup Inter-cities/Municipalities basketball tournament ended Wednesday evening at the Barba Sports Complex in Toledo City.
The Energy whipped the winless Samboan with a 114-86 bashing, while the Aqua Stars mutilated Barili following a 97-80 decision.
Talisay, which was earlier tagged as one of the top contenders for the Governor's Cup title finished the quarterfinal round with 3-2 win-loss cards along with Toledo, while Barili finished with 1-4 and Samboan was 0-5.
Both matches, however, have been deemed non-bearing as non of them advanced to the next round of the tournament.
Toledo banked on the protest they lobbied against Dalaguete last Saturday, for an alleged punching foul. Toledo asked for the nullification of Dalaguete's win.
Had the organizers ruled in favor of Toledo, it could have spelled a difference and put them in the semifinal round of the tournament.
Toledo City contended that Dalaguete player Ciegfred Vincent Pintor committed a punching foul on Jan Joshen Mangaron. when Dalaguete played Minglanilla last June 4.
The letter, sent by Toledo City team manager Justin Anthony de Jesus to Atty. Ramil Abing, the Executive Director of the Cebu Provincial Sports Commission, asked for the nullification of Dalaguete's win. A ruling in their favor could have had Toledo facing Minglanilla for the South Division Finals. They claimed that Pintor should have not played the match because he was no longer eligible to play since a punching foul warrants an automatic disqualification from the rest of the competition.
However, upon review and interview with the referee Carlos Pajo, who ejected Pintor out of the ball game, the technical committee composed of Commissioner Danny Duran, and deputy commissioners Julian Macoy and Ed Aguelo, it was found out that the player did not punch Mangaron, but just shoved him hard that warranted n unsportsmanlike foul that lead to his banishment.