San Miguel Beer maintained its stand that the PBA technical committee shouldn’t have nullified Mo Tautuaa’s dunk, which was deemed basket interference, during the final seconds of TNT’s 99-96 win in Game 1 of the Philippine Cup Finals on Sunday.

That is even after the Beermen elected not to push through with a potential lodging of a formal protest over the reversal of Tautuaa’s slam with 56 seconds left that initially put the Beermen ahead by one.

“Basically, the letter of protest is an [exercise] in futility,” Abanilla said in a text message to the Inquirer the day after the stunning end to the championship opener. “[The league] pre-empted our argument with their press conference [after Game 1].”

Deputy commissioner Eric Castro and technical committee member Bong Pascual, a veteran Fiba referee who has officiated multiple times in the Olympics, stood by the decision to cancel Tautuaa’s basket which restored the Tropang 5G’s lead at 97-96.

Not only was the controversial call made, but it also was a correction done 50 seconds after Tautuaa’s slam. Play continued until TNT’s Jordan Heading and San Miguel’s Chris Ross forced a jump ball during a loose ball situation.

“As you can see in the replay, Mo dunked the ball in the 56 seconds, but he had pulled the ring,” Castro said.

Castro cited rule J-5 stating that “an offensive player causes the backboard to vibrate or grasps the basket in such a way that, in the judgment of the official, the ball has been caused to enter the basket.”

Team governor Robert Non was not convinced with Castro’s explanation. Earlier, the usually mild-mannered official had to be restrained when he stormed at the technical committee’s table after the final buzzer.

Not only did Non feel that Tautuaa made a legal play, a review should have been done on the spot.

“They should have reviewed it right away,” Non said. “Mo dunked the ball, he quickly released his hand, the ball bounced and it went in.

“How can it be a basket interference?” he added. PBA rules, however, allow for reviews to be done if the call had been made on the spot.

The controversy took away the thrilling finish to the contest that saw San Miguel rally from 24 down to take the lead in the final minutes.

TNT, meanwhile, waxed hot from downtown early to take that big lead. The Tropang 5G were buoyed by the return of Kelly Williams and RR Pogoy from injuries.

But lucky breaks, including the stunning reversal of Tautuaa’s dunk, were something TNT coach Chot Reyes doesn’t mind taking.

“I know I’ve been on the opposite side of those in the past,” said Reyes. “So, it’s just something that we are very fortunate and we’re going to take advantage of.” INQ