Meralco head coach Luigi Trillo was visibly furious during a stretch in the third frame when the Bolts were assessed with five straight fouls against none to the side of Ginebra.

He received a technical foul for continuous complaining.

Trillo played down the incident saying that emotions were running high and it was all in the heat of the battle that time although the two-time champion coach still lamented at the disparity of fouls called during Meralco’s series-tying 108-104 Game 2 win.

“Just emotional. All the coaches got it. Coach Tim got it the last time. Coach Nenad din. It’s just the heat of the battle,” said Trillo.

“I could be wrong at the time. 5-0 ‘yung fouls and the refs, they are also trying their best to get it right, but just like coaches are called to a higher standard kasi we get fired, I just kept on reminding the referees the same thing. So we have to be on them. It’s nothing personal,” he added.

Trillo was all over the referees during the game, especially because he felt that his wards were getting the wrong end of the calls. And it turned out after the game, Meralco committed the most fouls with 34 against Ginebra’s only 19.

“I understand, naiintindihan ko ‘yung trabaho nila, mahirap rin. So they have to understand that we have to complain. But it’s not like we’re complaining every time. It’s just the blatant ones,” said Trillo.

He also noted how Ginebra players were flopping and yet still drawing the fouls while for Meralco’s part, when the Bolts were getting shoved and pushed aside, calls were not going their way.

“Akil [Mitchell] is sealing, they’re flopping, they are moving, and they are making a basketball call. Brandon Bates sets a screen on [RJ] Abarrientos, he flops, he makes the ref make the call. And those are hard calls,” recalled the Meralco coach.

“We felt in Game One, Troy is all over, he’s pushing, no calls are being made. So we understand that the refs have a hard call. Obviously, we have a technical committee in place to judge that. But sa amin lang, we’re just fighting for them too,” he furthered.

Trillo, however, stressed that the team is putting the issue behind and will just leave it to the decision of the technical committee as the Bolts intend to focus on the winner-take-all Game 3.

“We just need to call (the attention) also. We will send a video to the referees, let them do their job. We will be ready for Game Three,” Trillo added.