Commish dumps FEU protest

MANILA, Philippines - UAAP commissioner Andy Jao yesterday junked the protest of Far Eastern U on its 64-68 overtime loss to Ateneo, claiming the contested review and belated correction of the three-point shot of Eagle Von Pessumal in the fourth quarter were “within the rule book.”

“That game, and the victory of Ateneo is going to be upheld. We can’t penalize the team on something that is correct,” said Jao.

FEU had protested the video review and adjustment of Pessumal’s two-pointer into a trey only after three minutes, insisting it violated UAAP rules on video review which only allows one in the first dead ball, a timeout or before end of period concerned.

Jao maintained that the referees had signaled a three-point but the scorer, who couldn’t see it clearly from his vantage point on the other side of the court, counted it as a two.

He said they tried to call the attention of the officials on the gaffe, but circumstances prevented the “correction” at the soonest possible time. However, he said they made the correction right before the end of the period, as the rule subscribed.

“We’re going to correct it. It just so happened that at that period, that was the only time the referees came to us to acknowledge the fact we should correct it,” said Jao.

 “Both teams had one timeout each, and they did not use it between the 3:20 mark and the 27 second mark when it was corrected. From the very start when the scorer missed it, we were calling the attention of the referees. Unfortunately, on that day, we were moved from our center table to a corner spot in the courtside,” Jao also said.

With this, Ateneo (11-3) remained on top going to the semis, enjoying twice to beat advantage against the No. 4 while the Tams and the Archers, both with 10-4, will dispute No. 2 before playing the actual F4 encounter.