Tuesday PBA Action + Drama

It was an action packed Tuesday as far as the on going PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals are concerned.  Defending champs San Miguel Beermen oust the equally mighty TNT KaTropa while Magnolia came from Globalport Batang Pier's behind to be semis bound.  Both SMB and Magnolia enjoyed twice to beat advantages for ending on top of the standing after the grueling elimination round.  But fans did not only see basketball action.  Both on first and second game there were additional drama that took place.

First is Arwind Santos vs. Jasyon Castro and Jericho Cruz.  Early in the game Arwind Santos was called for a technical foul for unnecessarily pushing Jayson Castro during a dead play.  Santos reasoned out that he as pushed by Castro's teammate Troy Rosario which resulted to him bumping into Castro.  And then with less than a 2 minutes in the game, off a ball scramble which gave the Beermen a fastbreak play Arwind smacked right into Jericho Cruz.  This one was not taken lightly by Cruz this time as he gave Santos an elbow and if not for the cooler heads that stepped in, there might be more than shouting match that happened.  Cruz offered no remorse on the incident saying that Santos just got what he deserved.  Jericho further states that all game long Arwind was pushing and shoving Jayson, RR Pogoy and him.  I wonder how Arwind will react if it's Beau Belga, Calvin Abueva, Kelly Nabong or anyone as big as him or maybe bigger than him that he'll have some scuffle with.  Arwind to me has a reputation of bullying rookies like Kevin Ferrer and RR Pogoy.  But has he shown aggressiveness to men his size?  

In the second game, Globalport Batang Pier looked to be on their way of an upset victory versus Magnolia as they lead as much as 20 points in the game.  Only to be defeated 86-79 by Magnolia.  At least couple of times in the game Magnolia main gunner Paul Lee gave his team a scare as he hurt his ankle on separate plays.  But the bigger drama was between Terrence Romeo and his coach Pido Jarencio.  While on a live play with Magnolia breathing on Global's neck towards the end of the 3rd, it was seen that Terrence and Coach Pido already was having some exchanges and when Magnolia finally overtook with a Mark Barroca three point shot, coach Pido called for time and the next thing seen was Romeo heading straight to Jarencio with some mouthfuls while the team staff tried to break them apart.  It was later seen in the footage during time out that Terrence and Jarencio continued to talk but team members and officials prevailed in pacifying the two.  Interestingly and ironically Kelly Nabong was one of those cooler heads that talked to Terrence to cool down.  It will be recalled that on their last game where Kelly Nabong was ejected for continuous complaining he was shoving his teammates and even coach Pido.  Later on it was reported that Nabong has apologizes to his team and to his coach and has vowed to keep his emotions checked all the times.   

As it is playoff time now, we expect the action to pick up on every game.  The fans will love it.  It adds drama and color to the game.  It helps in making the viewers entertained.  But I hope that whatever extra action happens on the court stays on the court.

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