PBA: Ejected Guiao says Rain or Shine ‘deserves better officiating’ as losses pile up

MANILA, Philippines—Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao feels that even good officiating won't be enough to get his team out of a winless start in the PBA Governors' Cup on Thursday.

But Guiao, who was ejected for two technical fouls in the Elasto Painters' 112-98 defeat at the hands of the unbeaten Converge FiberXers at Philsports Arena in Pasig City, said that consistent calls would have put them in a good situation to possibly score an upset.

"I'm not saying we could have won. Even with good officiating, we would still lose," Guiao said with a mixture of Filipino words after emerging from the Rain or Shine dugout with his coaching staff.

"But, with better officiating, we could have gotten ourselves in a better position. I felt like we couldn't build momentum because we would get frustrated with the calls. But [like I said], I don't think we would still win with good officiating."

Guiao received his first technical in the second quarter for using profane language with 4:53 left in the second quarter before getting tossed over a minute to go in the third after Santi Santillan was called for an offensive foul when he was battling for positioning with Converge import Jamaal Franklin.

Referee Mau Orioste slapped the fiery mentor with a second technical for once again making unprintable words, leading to his early exit from the contest.

"When Santi was trying to make a seal, [the Converge] import flopped, and it was Santi who called for the foul," Guiao said. "We're trying to regain our momentum and you make a call like that.

"But as I've said, that's not the reason for us to believe that we could have won the ballgame. But our only chance of getting back in the game was if we could get the calls that we deserve. I think we deserve better officiating."

The Elasto Painters dropped to 0-3, with Commissioner's Cup champion Barangay Ginebra next on Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Frustrations on the calls aside, Guiao said Rain or Shine has plenty of things to work on.

"The past three games, I thought we're improving because we lost big against Meralco and we brought it down to an endgame decision against TNT," he said. "I thought we were improving coming into this game, that we're going in the right direction. But it didn't."