Βy Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Anadolu Efes‘ general manager Engin Ozerhun hours after the defeat by CSKA Moscow attacked the trio of referees (Spaniards Jose Ramon Garcia Ortiz, Emilia Perez Pizarro and Frenchman Nicola Maestre) in an official press release by the team.
As Ozerhun is quoted saying: “We lost a game we could win, unfortunately. Last night on the court there was an extremely powerful squad, CSKA, and on the same time we had to fight against the referees. These referees should be ashamed with yesterday’s calls. This situation is causing damage to the organization of Euroleague. I can’t figure out what is causing their referees to make calls like these in Istanbul. They didn’t give us no respect. We will do our best to get their respect. They were an important factor of the game. I’m sure this referee trio won’t be able to call Euroleague matches for a while and I hope I never see them again in İstanbul”.
Efes‘ outrage is fueled by the techical foul to Thomas Heurtel after being called for a shooting foul over Nando De Colo with two minutes left. De Colo made three free throws, CSKA got the ball and Milos Teodosic made a three. This 6-0 run gave an eight points lead (72-64) to the Russians and decided the game.