If needed, La Salle will present its own video footage to prove that Ateneo committed an infraction and broke a UAAP rule when it had two foreign-born players simultaneously on the court Thursday.
“We have our own set of videos. This is a different one. The ABS-CBN video does not clearly show the Ateneo infraction. This is our ace,” La Salle board representative Chuck Buenaventura told The STAR yesterday.
La Salle, which lost in overtime to Ateneo at the Big Dome, placed the game under protest, claiming that the Blue Eagles had American Kirk Long and Australian Zion Laterre on the floor at the same time in the second quarter.
Under UAAP rules, a team cannot field in both its foreign-born players at the same time.
“It happened so fast so it was not noticeable even when their coaching staff realized that they made a mistake. At one point, they looked like they were trying to hide something,” said the La Salle official.
Laterre was already on the court when Long replaced Jai Reyes during a dead-ball situation. The ball, La Salle claimed, was already in play when Ateneo noticed the lapse, and coach Norman Black immediately tapped Reyes to replace Long.
Hurriedly, the 5-foot-7 Reyes came in, and was slapped a technical foul for not informing the table officials of the new substitution.
“Ateneo has a point that the mistake was corrected. But there was already an infraction. That’s why we have no choice but support the recommendation of the team to place the game under protest,” Buenaventura added.
“There is more merit on our part, and we’re trying to drive a point here that there was an infraction of the league rule. We are looking at a forfeiture of that Ateneo win,” he said.
Ricky Palou, Ateneo’s representative to the UAAP board of trustees, welcomed the protest but maintained that Laterre and Long were never on the playing court at the same time.
“Almost,” he said. “The rule states that they cannot play together. They never did. Bring the case to the technical committee and let it decide on the merit. They (Green Archers) just don’t know how to lose.”
Meanwhile, University of the East climbed to 5-0 after crushing UP, 97-66, for the biggest winning margin of the season so far. National U whipped Adamson in the other game, 91-76.