The altercation marred Taoyuan’s 101-85 win over San Miguel in the East Asia Super League on Wednesday, Nov. 13.
Taoyuan big man Alec Brown played down the altercation involving him and San Miguel guard Jericho Cruz that marred the Pauian Pilots' 101-85 win over the Beermen in the 2024-25 East Asia Super League on Wednesday, Nov. 13.
Things got chippy between the two in a post-up play with still 6:32 left in the match at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.
Brown and Cruz found themselves entangled after the play until San Miguel import Quincy Miller stepped in and shoved Brown away.
But as cooler heads tried to diffuse the tension, Cruz managed to sneak in a hit on Brown's face leading to a disqualifying foul.
Miller was slapped with an unsportsmanlike foul, while Brown was whistled for a technical foul for second motion.
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Brown is not making a big deal out of it.
“I’ll just say personally that it was emotional. I kind of reacted to what I thought was a foul. Maybe I overreacted,” said the Taoyuan reinforcement shortly after the match.
“But it escalated more than I hoped it would. Luckily, no one got hurt."
Jericho Cruz in action during San Miguel's joust with Taoyuan in the EASL on Wednesday, Nov. 13 | Photo (c) RM Chua/One Sports
Miller echoed a similar sentiment.
“I think Jericho’s just trying to be aggressive in taking the ball. I think that the other guy (Brown) thought he (Cruz) was trying to be vindictive, I guess. He got kind of aggressive on my teammate,” Miller said.
“It was a scuffle, but it wasn’t anything serious. We kind of made amends in the end. So, no big deal.”
Brown’s Pauian Pilots ended up having the last laugh as they took a share of the Group A lead with Japan B.League’s Hiroshima Dragonflies with their identical 2-0 tallies.