PBA ref faces suspension after missing crucial call in Bay Area-Meralco game

Aaron Black failed to pass the ball to Meralco's attack zone in time, but Referee Jerry Narandan missed out on the eight-second call. Dennis Acosta

By Ivan Saldajeno

QUEZON CITY—A PBA referee will be facing a huge sanction after missing a crucial call late in the Commissioner's Cup game between Bay Area and Meralco on Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Deputy commissioner Eric Castro admitted that Jerry Narandan failed to slap the Bolts with an eight-second violation as they apparently failed to cross the ball in time.

The sequence began with 20.2 seconds left when Raymond Almazan secured the rebound after Glen Yang's missed three-point attempt and passed the ball to Allein Maliksi.

However, Maliksi fumbled the ball after bumping into Hayden Blankley, letting the Dragons' defense swarm Maliksi before finding Aaron Black at the other side of the baseline.

Black eventually threw a long pass to Bong Quinto at the opposing end, but Meralco took around 10 seconds to cross the ball, which upset Bay Area coach Brian Goorjian as Narandan missed out on the call.

Goorjian even burned his last two full timeouts mainly to discuss why there was no eight-second call.

Castro eventually owed the officiating error, and according to Commissioner Willie Marcial, Narandan will sit out one officiating rotation, which usually goes for 3-4 games.

The Dragons still had one 30-second timeout that they used to set up a potential equalizer with 2.8 seconds left that would force overtime, but Yang failed to convert again from long range as time ran out on their chance to steal the win from the Bolts, spoiling a 50-point outburst from Andrew Nicholson.

[Related Story: KJ McDaniels successful in Meralco debut as Bay Area falls despite Andrew Nicholson's 50]

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