Meralco head coach Luigi Trillo lamented the huge disparity in the fouls and free-throws disparity between the Bolts and the TNT Tropang 5G in their 100-95 Game 1 loss in the PBA Season 50 Philippine Cup semifinals at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The veteran mentor pointed out that there were inconsistencies to the calls of the referees and urged the league to take a look at the officiating.

Trillo specifically highlighted the whopping 47 free throws given to TNT as opposed to only 19 Meralco got.

“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're making the right calls consistently for both teams,” said Trillo after the game.

“Like, New’s going to the basket, he's getting bumped and they're not making a call. But when these guys drive, there's an automatic foul,” he added as the Bolts were assessed for 31 fouls while the Tropang 5G were only called for 17.

Trillo also cited how the referees were calling the technical fouls for flopping and for the use of profane language.

“You look at the flopping, they call us for a flopping. Nambatac flopped, Pogoy flopped, there was no... A bad word was said by Oftana right in front of them, there was no technical call. Our active consultant says something and he gets called for a T,” Trillo stressed.

“So I'm just saying, let's be consistent with the calls.”

Trillo, however, admitted that they could have done better in the contest especially after establishing a 21-point lead in the first half. The Bolts struggled to execute in the third frame where they got outscored by the Tropang 5G, 28-13.

“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 admitted.

“Maybe we have to be a heavy-duty team. We need to go down with humility and see that to beat this team, we have to not let go of the gas pedal. You can't play good one half.”