La Salle contests ruling on UE protest

La Salle yesterday filed an official appeal to the UAAP board seeking to overrule an earlier decision by the technical committee reversing the Archers’ 86-83 overtime victory over the University of the East Warriors Thursday.

"La Salle is contesting the UE protest and the recommendation to declare UE as winner of the game," said La Salle senior board representative Danny Jose in a letter submitted to UAAP president Fr. Max Rendon of Adamson.

"In line with this, we are requesting that this be included in the agenda of the Sept. 9 board meeting," said Jose.

Jose also requested for commissioner Joe Lipa and head of referees Romy Guevarra to make themselves available to the board in case there are questions or clarifications to be made during the meeting.

Rendon is expected to convene the board on Friday at the Casino Espanol restaurant in Manila.

La Salle coach Franz Pumaren stressed that they did call a timeout before JV Casio in-bounded the ball. "Commissioner Joe Lipa approached a table official and the official confirmed that there was a timeout and reset the clock," Pumaren said.

"My players didn’t hear the buzzer, that’s why they held the ball. That’s what really happened," he added.

But the technical group chaired by Ricky Palou decided that La Salle wasn’t entitled to a timeout based on FIBA (International Basketball Federation) rule stating that a team can only be granted a timeout prior to a basket or before the in-bounding player gets hold of the ball.