UFO thumbs down VisMinda protest

 Officials of the UFO Inter-Organization Basketball Friendship League 2011 Bud Cup ruled the VisMinda/Satbahi’s protest is void even as the team reiterated it followed the proper procedure in filing the complaint.

The protest stemmed from J.R. Barrios’ shot in the last .5 second, giving MAFEA/Ali’i Konflikt a 79-77 win over VisMinda/Satbahi last Tuesday at the TSL Sports Complex.

UFO’s Bong Malasarte in a telephone interview said the protest is invalid as VisMinda failed to post the $250 bond, which is required under the league’s ground rules on procedure on protesting a game (section 10).

“The procedure on protesting a game is set forth on page 70 of the rulebook. (1) when protesting, the team must state its reasons for the protest in writing within 24 hours after the game; (2) a security deposit of $250 must be turned in and it will be refundable only upon winning the protest,” stated in the copy of ground rules Malasarte forwarded to Saipan Tribune.

“It’s final. The protest is invalid,” Malasarte said.

VisMinda coach Marlon Sison in a telephone interview said they personally handed Malasarte a copy of the protest letter at Hard Rock Café last Wednesday afternoon and told the UFO official the team is willing to pay the bond, but was advised against it.

The deadline for the submission of the protest letter and bond should have lapsed 10pm Wednesday night.

“We requested a meeting with Bong [Malasarte] yesterday [Wednesday] at Hard Rock at 4pm and discussed the issues. He said they will get back to us at 8pm because he has another commitment. We handed him a copy of our letter,” VisMinda assistant coach Rey Perez said in an email to Saipan Tribune.

“Malasarte told us to talk to Norman Del Rosario of Konflikt to persuade him to play the match for five more minutes. He also told us not to pay the bond during the meeting and said he will get back to us later. We waited and didn’t get a response,” Sison said.

A copy of the protest letter was also emailed to UFO last Wednesday night at 9:23pm, according to Perez.

VisMinda in its protest letter said the last-second shot should be nullified, saying the remaining time was not enough to allow the field goal. It also contended that referee Gabriel White should have consulted with the table officials, specifically the timekeeper, who Satbahi claimed “missed to press three-tenths of a second on the shot clock.”

VisMinda through Perez’s separate email also claimed “Barrios grabbed the ball using his left hand then moved the ball using his right for the layup.”

White, a FIBA International referee who was on the left key near the 3-point area when the crucial play happened, earlier ruled Barrios didn’t dribble the ball and instead picked it up and went for the layup.

The controversial play started with Elmer Esdrelon throwing a long inbound pass to Barrios after Elgene Mangali canned his second free throw that tied the game at 77-all with 0.5 (five tenths of a second) left in the game.

VisMinda in its protest said that the clock should have ended the moment Barrios touched the leather. FIBA rules on throw-in state that the clock will only start ticking the moment a player inside the court touches the ball.

On last-second shot, FIBA rules state “near the end of a period, the game clock must show at least 0:00.3 (three tenths of a second) for a player to secure control of the ball and attempt for a goal. If the clock reads 0:00.2 (two tenths) or 0:00.1 (one tenth) second, the only legal goal must be made as a result of a tip in or an alley-oop dunk.”

As for the procedures on filing a protest after the game, Sison said table officials told them to sign at the back of the scoresheet. Perez then wrote the words Satbahi and protest at the back of the scoresheet.

“Right after the game, we shouted and informed table officials, like Abner Venus, that we will protest the game,” Perez said.

White after the game explained that FIBA rules state that the team captain should sign on the space provided in the scoresheet in case of a protest. Darwin Barbo is VisMinda’s team captain. Without following the proper procedure, White said the game was not under protest.

When told about UFO’s decision to nullify the protest, Sison said their team was scheduled to have a meeting yesterday afternoon to decide their next step. He then criticized organizers for scheduling the semis pairings right after the Tuesday night game.

“While the team was given 24 hours to protest the game, UFO had already decided to have a play date for Proa, Mobil, Konflikt, and Cavite,” the letter said.

The semis schedule was decided via draw after the controversial VisMinda-Konflikt match with Proa being paired against Mobil and Cavite drawing Konflikt. Mobil and Proa dueled last night, Ali’i Konflikt plays Cavite/Andok’s this Sunday.