BARANGAY Ginebra doesn't think this tough loss boiled down to questionable officiating.
Ginebra lets win slip away
It's the fact that the Gin Kings let a huge 26-point lead slip away that led to their downfall in the first season match-up with fierce rivals Magnolia Hotshots in the PBA Season 48 Commissioner's Cup.
"We can go on and on with officiating or whatever, but we know we lost that game," said guard Maverick Ahanmisi in the aftermath of the Kings' 93-91 loss to the Hotshots on Sunday in a game where they led by as much as 26 points.
"We're up 26 points, we have enough cushion, and we just didn't focus."
The Kings were actually contesting their final two offensive plays inside the final 11 seconds, both of which they thought a foul should have been called.
A let go on the missed layup by Scottie Thompson which was strongly challenged by Mark Barroca, had coach Tim Cone livid at game officials, claiming there was contact on the former MVP when he missed the shot.
Why Cone couldn't challenge call
Despite still having a challenge call after a successful attempt earlier, Cone couldn’t make one since the Kings no longer had any timeouts left.
Instead, the sequence led to a duty foul by Christian Stanhardinger on Jio Jalalon, who split his two shots from the foul line to make it a two-point contest for Magnolia.
Standhardinger’s possible game-tying jump shot missed its mark at the buzzer as the Hotshots escaped with the thrilling victory, though the Fil-German big man claimed he was also fouled by Rome Dela Rosa while going for the jumper.
Ahanmisi thought things shouldn’t have come down to such circumstances.
“It shouldn’t have gotten to that point. Like I said we’re up by 26. And that was completely on us,” he admitted. “We didn’t defend well in the second half and they started attacking us. We just collapsed.”
The loss put to naught Ahanmisi’s impressive first ‘Clasico’ game for Ginebra in which he led the team with 21 points and 11 rebounds while going 5-of-9 from three-point range.
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