ON Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, the final buzzer was far from the end of it for the University of the Philippines and Adamson.
After both teams found and lost double-digit leads throughout the game, the Fighting Maroons and Soaring Falcons were headed for a photo finish when Mathew Montebon buried a long triple to trim the latter's deficit to 67-69 with 33 seconds still on the clock.
Montebon then forced a steal two possessions later, and with Adamson unable to call a timeout, forced a halfcourt heave that was way off.
Only, according to the Soaring Falcons at least, even before getting the shot up, Montebon felt a foul was committed by UP’s Dikachi Ududo.
“I know it's hard for the refs to call a foul towards the end of the game, but I felt that (I was fouled),” he said after their sorry loss.
Adamson's admonition
Where Adamson's contention comes from was that a whistle was heard not far from the final buzzer - and at the very least, they were hoping for a review.
READ: Racela questions contentious whistle at end of Adamson-UP match
Unfortunately for them, they were met with a quick exit from referees and no other choice but to concede and head on with the post-game handshakes.
“There were a couple of plays throughout the game where I felt I got fouled and the refs didn't call it, but you know that just that's how basketball goes. Sometimes, the whistle goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t, and unfortunately today it didn't go our way,” he said.
“You try to control what you can control, so you can't you know like if the fouls are coming our way. You're not going to complain, so I leave it to the coaches.”
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