Hapoel Holon was close last night (Tuesday) to opening the top 16 stage of the Champions League with an away win over French Strasbourg, but dropped a double digit lead in the last quarter and finally surrendered 112:110 after two overtimes in a game that got out of hand.
The club left the game with hard feelings and felt that the refereeing decisions were strange and hurt the team fatally, which allowed the host to return to the game and eventually win the match, with the champion's bench and coach looking stunned at the end.
"Usually I don't like to talk about things like this, I'll try to be polite. What happened at the end with the decisions of the judges, who whistled four or five unsportsmanlike fouls against us, is something I can't understand and accept," Guy Goodes painfully shared at the end.
"I don't usually talk about referees, I really respect all three of them, but to whistle us unsportsmanlike fouls that we are just trying to stop the ball in defense, it helped them get back into the game every time."
"We made some mistakes in defense and it cost us dearly, but it is very painful to play like this. I have been in basketball for many years and I have never seen such judgment. I have been at all levels - Euroleague, Eurocup and Champions League, this is the first time something like this has happened to me and it is hard to accept. I will have to see I will watch the video of the game again and I will pass my comment to whoever is responsible for this. I had to say it, I don't usually talk about referees but this time I had to say it. I'm sorry, I can't even talk now about what happened professionally, this time The first time this has happened to me in my 20-year career," Goodes concluded.
At the club, they marked the goal on the eve of the game to stop the steps of Marcus Kane, the star of the French and their main executor in the attack, but failed in the task, when the American guard starred with 23 points, 8 assists and 4 rebounds, alongside a big three-pointer in the final seconds that sent the game to another extension.
CJ Harris, who scored 20 points, shared his feelings at the end: "Strasbourg is a good team and we knew it was going to be a tough challenge. We didn't do what we had to do, the responsibility was on us players to be able to finish this game earlier and get a victory and we didn't succeed. We didn't We can blame no one but ourselves. We made small mistakes that shouldn't happen, we didn't communicate well enough in defense, it's a combination of things that in the end we couldn't win this game. We just have to be better and play better."
After the match, the Purples will return to Israel on Saturday night to meet the leader of the table Hapoel Gilboa/Galil at the Totu Hall, and on Wednesday in about a week they will host Hapoel Jerusalem for the second round in the round of 16 in the Champions League.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us