By REYNALD MAGALLON
The PBA has suspended referee Rey Yante, who called the controversial Game 3 between Rain or Shine and Magnolia, for the rest of the conference after he missed on a supposed goaltending call on Zav Lucero’s shot in the waning seconds of the Elasto Painters’ 111-106 win.
Deputy commissioner and technical committee head Eric Castro said a goaltending violation call should have immediately been made when Jhonard Clarito blocked Lucero’s shot with 12 seconds left.
Yante, who was the trail referee during that sequence, was not in his supposed position to have a good vantage point and call the play.
“Our trail referee who administered the inbound Rey Yante missed to call a goaltending because of his position. Mali yung pwesto niya he was not able to call a goaltending,” said Castro on Monday, Sept. 30 – a day after the controversial game.
The technical committee did manage to review the non-call and correct it but not after Jerrick Ahanmisi purposely fouled Gian Mamuyac to stop the clock.
“With the rules that we have, we reviewed it but again that’s after the foul already. Magnolia already fouled a ROS player. We added two points kasi nga on our rule, it was reviewable,” said Castro.
Still, even after the review, the foul cannot be overturned, sending Mamuyac to the foul line – something that could have not happened if Yante managed to call the goaltending violation
“If there was a call, right then and then, we could have reviewed it. Stop natin, then basket count all ang score, bola ng Rain or shine,” he furthered.
Aside from that, Castro also admitted that the technical committee also missed on a supposed 0.8 remaining at the end of the regulation when the ball went out of bounds after a rebound play.
“I take full responsibility for this incident,” he said.
“We based it on the stoppage of the referee, sa stoppage niya ng clock so during that time, doon kami nag base and after further review kaninang umaga we found out that there’s still at least 0.8 pa,” said Castro.
“And upon checking kasi nga kini-claim ng Magnolia na it is their ball, and after checking it was Lucero’s hand who last touched the ball,” he added.
As for the questions why Victolero was not called for a technical foul when he entered the court, Castro said it happened during a dead ball situation and they didn’t want to decide the game with that free throw.
“We don’t want to decide the game with that technical foul. The score was tied that time so that will happen to coach Yeng (Guiao) to coach Chot (Reyes), then probably we’ll do the same . We don’t want to give the technical during that time with seconds to go,” he explained.
