By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
EuroLeague officially announced that the referees in the game between Crvena Zvezda and Barcelona missed the most crucial call of the night, permitting to Nikola Mirotic to send the game to overtime.
Mirotic himself admitted that he was aware of what happened, and now there’s an official report on the issue.
“During the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 16 game between Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade and FC Barcelona, with 8.2 seconds remaining on the game clock of the fourth quarter, the ball was inbounded to Corey Higgins of FC Barcelona who dribbled and passed the ball to Nikola Mirotic. As he received the ball, Nikola Mirotic stepped on the sideline and committed an out of bounds violation that should have resulted in possession of the ball being awarded to Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade with 3.3 seconds remaining on the game clock”.
However, as Zvezda’s coach Dusko Ivanovic said after the game, this admission doesn’t change practically anything for the final result, other than a moral gratification to the hosts. Still, per Serbian outlet Mozzartsport, Zvezda has filed a complaint with the Euroleague and is asking for the match to be registered in its favor or canceled, because there was a gross violation of the rules.