The Meralco Bolts are down 0–1 in their PBA Philippine Cup semis showdown against the TNT Tropang 5G, in part because the latter went 37-for-47 from the foul line while the former shot 12-for-19 from the stripe. In a five-point game, that huge disparity in makes and attempts certainly made a big difference, to say the least.
It is probably why Meralco coach Luigi Trillo was upset with the officiating in Game 1, so much so that he asked the PBA indirectly “to also look at the referees.”
“When you give a team 47 free throws and it magically goes there, you know, the PBA has to also look at the referees and check if they are making the right calls consistently for both teams,” Trillo told reporters in a scrum after TNT’s 100–95 comeback win on Sunday. “Like, New’s [Chris Newsome] going to the basket, he’s getting bumped and they’re not making a call. But when these guys [TNT] drive, there’s an automatic foul.”
In all, the refs called Meralco for 31 fouls and TNT for only 17. Tellingly, three ka-Tropa trooped to the line at least eight times, with Calvin Oftana going 11-for-12, Rey Nambatac 8-for-11, and Jordan Heading 7-for-8.
Bolts Must Be Better, Says Luigi Trillo
While Luigi Trillo called out the referees and the PBA, he nonetheless admitted that it “should be a done game” after the Bolts’ first-half barrage that saw them plaster 62 points on TNT’s normally stout defense. The Tropa, though, flipped the script starting in the third quarter, outscoring Meralco 28–13, before finishing the job with a 26–20 fourth period. Incidentally, 20 of TNT’s 54 second-half points came from the charity stripe as they went 20-for-25 from the line in the final 24 minutes of Game 1.
Trillo was understandably upset by Meralco’s meltdown as well.
“That should be a done game. That should be step on the throats and done game. And we didn’t do that. We allowed them to come back,” Trillo acknowledged. “That thing should not happen when you go up by 20. That should be a done game. That should be step on the throats in that game. And we didn’t do that. We allowed them to come back.”
Even with the heartbreaking loss, the outspoken Meralco tactician insists “there’s still a lot of basketball to be played.”
But if that were to happen, Luigi Trillo must make sure that his Bolts “not let go of the gas pedal.”
“We need to be better,” he concluded.
And maybe the Bolts would be best served using their gripes with the officiating as fuel to play two good halves instead of just one.
