‘Be fair.’
Following a tough outing against the National University Bulldogs, University of Santo Tomas big man Collins Akowe insisted that officials should ‘not be biased.’
Akowe struggled against the frontline of NU, finishing with 11 points on 2-of-7 shooting from the floor, to go with five rebounds and two assists.
He had four fouls in the ballgame, which limited his effectiveness on the defensive side of the ball.
In comparison, Akowe currently is averaging 15.2 points, 13.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.
After the game, Akowe said that he believes he did not struggle in the game.
‘The thing is I couldn’t get more touches and I just couldn’t do my part of the job. Boxing out, getting rebounds. Yeah, there wasn’t any really struggle for me,’ he said.
‘[The foul trouble] was because I don’t know what to do anymore. I don’t know if I’m going to touch the person because the fouls they were calling were just, I don’t know. I can’t even play defense anymore because any silly touch, they call a foul. I have scratches all over me, no foul. It is what it is, man. It’s the UAAP, I’m used to this,’ he added.
The 6-foot-10 banger stressed that he is used to the physicality, but he yearned for questions for supposed questionable calls.
‘The thing is, I’m used to it, but you don’t need to be biased. You gotta be fair, I’m used to it. If you bump me, I bump you. It’s easy. Don’t be biased, don’t pick a side. I was bumped several times, no fouls and all of that. But for me, I didn’t even touch, like, several times and they were calling fouls,’ he said.
‘That alone even [expletive] up, sorry for the language, [expletive] up my mental health. I don’t know, I wasn’t able to focus on the game because I was scared of touching these guys boxing out. Because, man, the referees, I don’t know, bro.’
Akowe also looked mortal in their first round clash with NU, where he was held to 11 points and eight rebounds.
UST is now down to four elimination round games. With a 4-6 win-loss record, the Tigers would most likely need to sweep their remaining games.
‘We have four more games, hopefully we get to win the last four games and see where fate takes us.’