Green Lancers coach Cortes believes questionable calls dimmed their chances
After coming so close to the crown but falling short, University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers head coach Gary Cortes pointed his finger at the officiating crew for what he perceives to be “bad calls” on his Cameroonian import Steve Akomo that eventually led to their defeat against the University of San Carlos (USC) in Game Five of the Cesafi finals on Tuesday at the Cebu Coliseum.
With the game hanging in the balance, Akomo, who at the time had held his compatriot and USC counterpart Shooster Olago to a mere 10 points, picked up his third foul with 1:56 left in the third. Not long after, the 6-foot-10 Akomo was called for his fourth foul, exactly eight minutes remaining in the game.
With UV’s beanpole and later playing hesitant defense, Olago found the opening he was looking for and scored 16 in the last 12 minutes of play to push USC to a 64-53 win and claim its first Cesafi crown after 57 years.
Cortes said those two fouls limited UV’s chance of defending Olago, USC’s main man.
“When Steve (Akomo) returned, he was out of timing already and [Shooster] was on a rampage already,” Cortes said in a talk on Wednesday morning.
Akomo agreed with his coach’s assessment and added that the result would be wholly different without those two questionable foul calls.
Steve Akomo of UV is smothered by the defense of USC’s Maverick Fitz Suarez and Shooster Olago in the Cesafi Men’s Finals at the Cebu Coliseum.
CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON
“I feel so disappointed with the referees. They really killed my play. Very, very bad calls. I just don’t know what to say right now,” Akomo said.
Cortes is hoping that next season, the league will be more consistent in choosing officiating crews or better yet, give the officiating duties to the local crew.
The Cesafi has, for the last five years, delegated officiating duties during the Cesafi finals series to Manila referees in lieu of local ones. According to long-time Cesafi commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy, this is being done in order to protect the local officiating crew from unfair criticism from the coaches of the two competing teams as well as from the fans. Referees from the Basketball Referees Association for Schools, Colleges and Universities (BRASCU) were tapped to oversee the finals this year.
“It would be much better if next year, Manila refs would officiate from preseason all the way to the finals so that players won’t have a hard time adjusting to the calls. Or why not give our local referees the chance to officiate in the Cesafi finals to boost their morale. It’s discriminating on their part to have them start the tournament but not finish it,” Cortes said.