COLLEGE of St. Benilde coach Charles Tiu lamented how a non-call in one of the team’s final two possessions could have altered the Blazers’ 82-81 loss to host Lyceum that handed the Pirates the last Final Four ticket in the NCAA Season 100 men’s basketball tournament.
Tiu was furious after the referees failed to call a foul on Vincent Cunanan, who bumped a shooting Gab Cometa in the final 2.9 seconds of the exhilarating game at the FilOil EcoOil Centre and the Blazers trailing by a single point.
READ Lyceum Pirates sink Benilde, catch last bus to NCAA Final Four
The Blazers did get back the possession with seventh-tenth of a seconds, but Tony Ynot’s alley-oop play for big man Allen Liwag just fell short, paving the way for Lyceum to complete the Final Four cast and imperil Benilde's bid for the top seed.
“It did,” said Tiu when asked if that non-call against Cunanan had an impact on the outcome of the game. “No fouls called, how can they miss that?”
Shortly after the final buzzer and in the din of the Lyceum celebration at midcourt, a fuming Tiu went to the table officials and complained about the no calls.
He later posted a video on X (formerly tweeter) of that final sequence of Cometa being bumped while airborne, captioning in with 'LOL' (Laugh Out Loud) accompanied by a laughing emoji.
In a separate post, Tiu also wrote 'What stupid shit is this.'
But the St. Benilde coach wasn't about to deny Lyceum of the hard-earned win.
"We lost because Lyceum played great. (Ato) Barba was great. But I am very upset at the clear miss call at the end of the game that could've changed the outcome," Tiu said in a message sent to SPIN.ph.
The loss hurt the Blazers' chance at ending up as the top seed as they fell to a 14-4 record - half a game behind now solo No. 1 Mapua (14-3).
A Cardinals victory on Saturday against Arellano will have them locking up the No. 1 spot and a twice-to-beat edge against Lyceum.
That leaves St. Benilde at second place and an even dangerous Final Four opponent in reigning champion San Beda.
St. Benilde will take the top spot with a Mapua loss to Arellano owing to a better quotient.
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