By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos Piraeus missed the chance to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five Greek final series and blamed a 67-65 defeat by Panathinaikos Athens in OAKA on the referees.
The Piraeus Club issued a short statement about it to express its displeasure and indignation.
“We could only lose tonight because of such officiating. Everything that happened in OAKA is a shame,” per the official announcement.
Olympiacos finished the game without Sasha Vezenkov due to injury and Thomas Walkup getting ejected at the beginning of the second half.
At the press conference, Olympiacos head coach Georgios Bartzokas also talked about the decision of the referees to eject his team’s best player in the first two quarters.
“Congratulations to Panathinaikos. We have to evaluate the situation for the next match. We have some issues. Unfortunately, Tarik Black is not healthy, Kostas Sloukas also, while Sasha Vezenkov got injured, and we will find out what he has. Walkup wonders how the unsportsmanlike foul and technical penalty was given. We lost a match and made mistakes in defense and attack. We will be ready for the next game,” Bartzokas said.
As it’s recorded in the official scoresheet before the game, Panathinaikos fans sitting courtside verbally attacked coach Bartzokas, while water and yogurt were thrown to the bench of Olympiacos.
Plus at the end of the game, there was a verbal attack on Olympiacos team manager Christos Bafes, flares were used, and also insulting chants. Due to all those incidents, it’s possible that Game 4 at OAKA will be played without fans. Game 5 at Olympiacos’ gym is already banned for spectators and will be played with empty stands.