La Salle’s protest of its overtime loss to Ateneo last week took a new twist when video clips showed that the ball was indeed in play when two foreign players of Ateneo were seen inside the playing court.
A 38-second edited Studio 23 video released to the media yesterday showed that the ball was already in play when Ateneo coach Norman Black pulled Kirk Long, an American, out of the playing court and Jai Reyes was ordered back into the game.
Long was fielded in for Reyes as announced by the game barker, unaware that Australian Zion Laterre, the other foreigner, was already on the court for Ateneo.
Under UAAP rules, no team is allowed to field two foreign players at the same time.
Black has earlier said that the two foreign players did not play at the same time and that the ball was not in play when they corrected the error.
Meanwhile, sources said similar dispute took place 16 seasons ago but it was Ateneo which filed a protest against La Salle, which was found to have fielded in brothers Elmer and Dwight Lago – then American citizens – at the same time.
The then UAAP board, citing the infraction didn’t affect the outcome of that match played on Sept. 7, 1991 won by La Salle, 79-75, denied the protest, according to the source who asked not to be identified.
In that game, the Lago brothers played for around 30 seconds but it was Ateneo, which scored two points against La Salle.
Fr. Raymond Hoelscher, then the Ateneo board member, filed the protest as he sought to reverse the outcome of the game.
State U’s Kiko Diaz, who chairs the league’s four-man technical committee, said he would comment on the Lago case only after commissioner Ed Cordero submits his final recommendation.
“I can’t comment about it just yet,” Diaz told The STAR yesterday. “Besides, the technical committee reserves its inputs until the office of the commissioner has made the decision.”
On Monday, Cordero said he might be ready to come up with a decision in two to three days.
Bro. Bernie Oca, for his part, said the circumstances were different.
“At that time, table officials said substitutions were not yet completed and the referees did not hear them, that it was still a dead-ball situation,” said Oca. “Now the call was in play.” – With report from Joey Villar