Meralco head coach Luigi Trillo did not hold back in expressing what’s on his mind with the way Game 1 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 Philippine Cup best-of-seven semifinals was officiated.

Trillo called out the huge disparity of free throws given by game officials to TNT during the Bolts’ 95-100 loss Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Meralco shot itself in the foot by squandering a 21-point first-half lead and failing to execute down the stretch with the match still salvageable.

But Trillo felt the Tropang 5G got way too many trips to the line as compared to the Bolts — a glaring 47-19 difference.

TNT converted 37 of its attempts from the foul line and were given 10 tries in the payoff period –- hitting all, including two in the last 21 seconds that gave the Tropang 5G a three-point lead. Meralco, on the other hand, only got four attempts.

The Tropang 5G went 10-of-17 from the charity stripes in the third canto compared to the Bolts’ 5-of-6.

“So, you credit their physicality, right,” Trillo said of its sister team, which got away with just 17 fouls as opposed to 31 of Meralco.

“But then again, they were awarded 17 free throws in the third. By the end of the third, the foul call was 24 to 12. At the end of the game, it’s 31 to 17,” he added.

“I don’t think our team is that bad at playing defense.”

Trillo admitted that there’s no real excuse for throwing away a 52-31 advantage with 5:35 left in the second quarter and a 16-point cushion by halftime.

However, Trillo felt that losing the lead to an opponent frequently at the foul line reeks of questionable judgment on the referees.

“True maybe we’re at fault, we didn’t match their intensity. But when you give when you give a team 47 free throws and it magically goes there, you know, PBA has to also look at the referees and check if they’re making the right calls consistently for both teams,” he said.

Trillo claimed that there were contacts on his players that should’ve earned a call. He was also up in arms about the technical foul whistled to active consultant Nenad Vucinic late in the third period.    

“Like New’s (Chris Newsome) going to the basket, he’s getting bumped and they’re not making a call. But when these (TNT) guys drive there’s an automatic foul. Look at the flopping, they call us for a flopping but (Rey) Nambatac flopped, (RR) Pogoy flopped but there was nothing,” he said.