Abueva, Dillinger escape suspensions
Games Wednesday
Araneta Coliseum
5:45 p.m.- Rain or Shine vs. Meralco
8:00 p.m.- Petron vs. San Mig
As the race for playoff berth in the 39th PBA Philippine Cup heats up, the Meralco Bolts and the Alaska Aces are fortunate that their key players escaped suspensions following a scuffle in the former’s 74-65 win last Friday.
Meralco’s Jared Dillinger and Gary David, and Alaska’s rookie Calvin Abueva appeared before league commissioner Chito Salud yesterday to explain their side on a heated incident in both teams’ last game.
The scuffle happened in the fourth quarter after a driving Dillinger ended up with a bloodied nose after he was hit by Abueva, who tried to block his shot. The two players crashed into the railings that led to Dillinger grabbing Abueva by the neck. David was also seen confronting Abueva with a raised closed-fist.
In Salud’s decision, the technical foul for taunting called on Dillinger was upgraded to flagrant/unsportsmanlike conduct, which resulted to a P10,000 fine. The technical foul for second motion called on Abueva was also upgraded to flagrant/ unsportsmanlike that cost him a P10,000 fine.
An additional P3,000 fine was also slapped on Abueva for his “proclivity to exaggerate fouls against him and other forms of physical contact in which he is involved.”
David, for his part, was slapped with a P5,000 fine.
Interestingly, Abueva was not fielded by Alaska head coach Luigi Trillo in the team’s 88-91 overtime loss to the GlobalPort Batang Pier last Sunday.
Trillo claimed that Abueva was nursing a sprained ankle that prompted him not to use the energetic forward.
But reports had it that the “benching” was a form of disciplinary action after Abueva failed to join the team practice the day before their game against GlobalPort after the rookie allegedly suffered a bad hangover following a heavy drinking bout.
Alaska is in danger of missing the playoffs as it currently ranked ninth in the standings with four wins and nine losses. The number 10 and nine squads after the first round will be eliminated.
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