UAAP sacks UE's Llagas, FEU's Cervantes

MANILA, Philippines - The UAAP yesterday suspended UE’s Pari Llagas and FEU’s Reil Cervantes for nearly coming to blows during the Warriors-Tams match in the UAAP seniors basketball tournament at the Araneta Coliseum last Sunday.

“The board is following the league rule that if you get thrown out in a game, you’re automatically suspended the next game,” a source told The STAR.

The Warriors will thus show up without one of their mainstays when they take on the Ateneo Eagles at the start of the second round elims starting at 4 p.m. today, also at the Big Dome.

La Salle, meanwhile, squares off with Adamson in the 2 p.m. opener.

Cervantes, for his part, will serve his suspension when FEU faces UST on Saturday.

The UAAP board yesterday convened at the FEU campus in Morayta in a meeting that lasted only less than an hour. It also turned down the appeal filed by UE coach Lawrence Chongson.

“We appealed not to suspend Llagas and that referees erred when they ejected him,” Chongson said.

Chongson said they were surprised the board did not follow league commissioner Joe Lipa’s recommendation not to suspend the two players since they only engaged in a shoving match and did not throw a single punch.

But Lipa neither confirmed nor denied Chongson’s claims.

The Eagles wound up tied with the Tams after the first round with 6-1 slates while the Warriors are in a triple-tie for third with the Archers and the UST Tigers with 4-3 slates.

MVP Rabeh Al-Hussaini is expected to suit for Ateneo after being pulled out due to ankle injury in the fourth quarter of the Eagles’ game against the La Salle Archers last Sunday. Ateneo won in overtime, 76-72. – Joey Villar