Spotty officiating irks Yeng, Ryan

Red Bull Barako emerged victorious alright versus Purefoods in their gut-wrenching triple-overtime duel Saturday night but this didn’t stop Thunder coach Yeng Guiao from making negative remarks on the game’s officiating which called many names.

"That’s just absurd. It’s out of this world. It’s crazy. That’s an aberration," said Guiao though his Thunder overcame Hotdogs, 141-138, and what he deemed as a very bad officiating to stay in the hunt for an outright quarterfinals berth in the Gran Matador PBA Fiesta Conference.

"It’s absurd because if you would review the game tape, many fouls the referees called were not actually foul at all. I think you need to look at how the referees called the fouls. It became a foul-shooting contest and that took the momentum out of both teams. Na-hypnotize yata yung tatlo. They just keep on calling na hindi ko maintindihan," said Guiao on the job done by referees Ogie Ramos, Renato Fabrez and Joel Nicolas.

"Yung appreciation nila sa contact at yung judgement masyadong masama," Guiao also said on the officiating that netted a conference-high 94 fouls called with nine players ejected on infractions from both teams.

The Red Bull Barako mentor thought negative remarks on officiating must be said so that technical officials do something about it.

Losing coach Ryan Gregorio said he intends to visit the PBA office today to file a complaint.

"We will complain not for our benefit but for the league," said Gregorio. "We want clarification on the philosophies of calls. When to call and not to call? As much as I’m very upset and depressed, we have to help the league not to put the league down."

PBA technical chief Perry Martinez admitted there were some lapses on the part of the referees, attributing these on the long, hard grind in the contest —— the first that went into triple overtime in over a decade.

"Madaming tawag. May manipis ba? Yes. May pwede bang i-let go? Yes. Pero walang pinaboran ang referees and they just call it how they see it," said Martinez.

— Nelson Beltran