Compton lashes out on Magnolia's "dirty basketball" despite Alaska win

Alex Compton confronts the table officials about what happened to Chris Banchero. Dennis Acosta

By Ivan Saldajeno

QUEZON CITY--An irate Alex Compton came into the post-game press conference of Game 4 of the PBA Governors' Cup Finals between Alaska and Magnolia at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Wednesday night.

Even if his Aces edged the Hotshots, 90-76, Compton could not help but air his disappointment about how some of their opponents got away with what he thought are cheap shots at them.

"First, I'm glad we won, but second, if we're gonna get punched multiple times and there aren't calls or suspensions, I got a problem with it," Compton said.

He then mentioned three glaring cases of those punches.

"You all saw it, right? We have an officiating crew that perhaps didn't see it, and I understand that. They can't see everything. But Jio [Jalalon] punched us. Somebody punched Mike [Harris] and Chris [Banchero] in the testicles," Compton continued.

Banchero's case was the most glaring of them as Mark Barroca's apparent closed fist on him while everyone was trying to rebound Mike Harris' missed free throw was seen in the television replay.

Barroca eventually hit a fastbreak triple from the right corner right after the said sequence to cut the lead down to nine, 78-69, with 2:31 remaining, and if not for Magnolia faltering in the end and Banchero putting up huge baskets down the stretch, Barroca's triple could have ignited a huge comeback, making what happened between him and Banchero a game-turning moment.

"That's literally a low blow, and I'm not happy about that one. It's dirty basketball," Compton further commented.

He then lamented on the referees, "At what point is that gonna be called? I don't know."

But he hopes, "I'm sure in the next game, it will, and we will just play basketball."

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