At A Glance
- Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone didn't mince words and blasted the officiating in their 101-94 loss in Game 2, believing that the Kings did not get the right calls all-game long.
Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone didn’t mince words and blasted the officiating in their 101-94 loss in Game 2, believing that the Kings did not get the right calls all-game long.
“We didn’t get a break from the referees. I thought it was a terrible crew tonight,” said Cone, who in several instances throughout the contest, went to center court during timeouts to complain about the officiating.
“I usually don’t complain about referees after a game. That’s one thing I don’t know if I did. But tonight, I just felt the crew was not a good crew. And they got to have a better crew the next time out,” he added.
The veteran mentor cited the huge disparity in free throw attempts with his import Justin Brownlee only getting four attempts from the foul line despite repeatedly attacking the basket and playing around the rim.
In all, Ginebra only had 10 attempts from the charity stripe, making nine while TNT had 25 attempts, taking care of 22.
Ginebra was assessed with 24 fouls as compared to TNT’s 16.
“Justin had four free throws. He took only three three-point shots, and yet he only got four free throws. He’ll go into the rim, he’ll stay around the basket, but he wasn’t getting the call all night,” said Cone.
Still, it was a gallant stand for the Kings in the final frame where they came within four points, 94-98, after trailing by as many as 19 at the start of the fourth quarter.
Cone, however, stressed Ginebra couldn’t have trailed by that many if his wards only had a good start to the contest and played within their system.
The Kings were held to just three assists in the first half, which according to PBA chief statistician Fidel Mangonon III, the few assists in the first half by any Cone-coached team in 26 years or since Alaska also had three in an 82-65 loss to Tanduay in 2000 All-Filipino Cup.
“But that came down to the fact that we just didn’t show up tonight and at the beginning of the game, we had three assists in the first and zero assists in the second quarter. That’s not just us,” added the veteran coach.