Fans were able to experience a triple treat on Saturday in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League 2025 Season at the packed Quezon Convention Center in Lucena City with reigning Southern Division champion Quezon Huskers capping a great night of matches with a convincing 79-64 triumph against Biñan.
The Huskers remained spotless after three games, serving notice of their strong title aspirations.
But before the Huskers’ dominance came a pair of down-the-wire matches as Imus and Pangasinan completed cliffhangers against their respective rivals.
Imus nosed out Zamboanga, 81-79, while Pangasinan escaped past a gritty expansion team Ilagan, 96-94.
So intense were the games, most notably the match between the Heatwaves and the Cowboys.
Both teams battled toe-to-toe, but the beauty of the game was tarnished a bit during the last second of the game when the game officials decided to let go of the play involving Michael Mabulac of Pangasinan and Gabriel Gomez, who were battling for position underneath.
The refs should have blown their whistle — regardless of what call they’re going to make — whether it’s going to be an offensive foul on Mabulac, a holding foul on Gomez or a double foul for both players.
But to let go the final play even if there was an obvious, excessive contact, which resulted to a game-winning bucket for Mabulac to propel the Heatwaves to victory was definitely not the best way to end it.
A coach who requested anonymity saw what happened on livestream and continuously went back to that final play.
“It’s obvious that there was a contact. In fact, there were excessive contacts,” said the coach. “It doesn’t matter whether it happened in the dying seconds of the game, but when there’s a clear contact, then the referees should make the call.”
Another veteran coach, who is not actively coaching in the sidelines, but was able to handle teams both in the PBA and the collegiate level, saw how Mabulac was able to plant his elbow to the neck of Gomez just to get a clear advantage.
“He already has the advantage, size-wise, but what was more obvious was he planted an elbow on the defender just to get some leverage,” said the coach, who shared his opinion on the condition that he won’t be named.
An assistant coach, whose team was not seeing action on Saturday’s triple header, saw Mabulac trying to impose his will, but also mentioned how Gomez was holding on from behind in a bid to stop the veteran center.
“May hawak eh,” added the assistant coach. “Pero nag-swing rin si Mabulac. Mas malaki si Mabulac at mas malakas kaya nawalaan ng balanse yung depensa.”
Either way, these coaches agreed that there should have been a call made by the game officials, no matter how crucial the game was as clearly shown during the play.
