By JONAS TERRADO
TNT owner Manny V. Pangilinan was certainly not pleased with the way officiating was handled during the Tropang Giga loss to the Magnolia Pambansang Manok Hotshots in Game 3 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals.
Pangilinan took to social media to voice his displeasure shortly after TNT was beaten 106-98 Sunday, Oct. 24 that put one of the teams from corporate rival San Miguel Corporation back in the series.
“Worst officiating by far tonight I’ve seen,” Pangilinan said in one of the few sports-related posts he made on his Twitter account which has more than 377,000 followers.
One of the plays that likely irked Pangilinan came with three minutes left in the second quarter when Brian Heruela was called for a foul while challenging a three-point attempt of Magnolia’s Paul Lee.
Replays, however, showed that Heruela never got to touch Lee, who went on to sink three free throws to make it 46-39 Magnolia.
Game 3 was also marred by a scary incident when Troy Rosario dislocated his left finger after a bad fall caused by a bump from Magnolia’s Jackson Corpuz with 3:02 to go in the third and Magnolia up 75-67.
Rosario was sent to the hospital while Corpuz was given a Flagrant Foul 1, which would have put him on the bench for three minutes.
But officials tossed Corpuz, who earlier in the game was slapped with a technical foul. Under PBA rules, a combination of a Flagrant 1 and a technical foul would result in an ejection.
