In an urgent press conference with Ramat Hen's chairwoman Ora Galzer, Coach Eli Rabi and point guard Limor Mizrachi, the club has announced its demand to stop the playoffs and re play game 4 between Ramat Hen & Ramla. The club is considering filing a lawsuit against the refs for fixing the game. "I've been playing for 20 years and I've never seen such hostile decisions made by refs in a game so critical", said Mizrachi.
“I am not willing to end a season we put so much effort and resources into in such a way”, said Ramat Hen’s chairwoman Ora Galzar. “If it wasn’t for the refs doing, Ramat Hen would have won that game and I’m sorry but based on the evidence it’s hard to believe it was just honest mistakes. I am considering filing a lawsuit on the charge of throwing a game. Mistakes happen and I understand that but 3 wrong calls in the final minute of a do or die game when Ramat Hen was up 5 is just too much.”
Ramat Hen is mainly talking about three incidents:
A backcourt violation called despite the ball hitting Crystal Robinson's leg
The ref taking Mizrachi out of the game with under a minute to go because of a blood stain on her shirt which she played with for 15 minutes, and resumes play after promising her he'll wait
A foul commited on Shiran Zeiri with under a minute to go which was ruled a Ramat Hen turnover
“I’ve never criticized refs after losses, always been a good sport” she continued, “but I can’t just let this slide as if nothing happened. Referees need to take responsibility for their actions. We all know how hard it is to recruit sponsors in sports in general and women’s sports in particular, and how much the team’s success matters. The two refs caused Ramat Hen major financial damage and it’s not fair that they don’t have to suffer any of the consequences.”
Galzar also demanded the referees union to confront Moshe Biton for the comments he made to her after the game. Galzar wanted to have a word with him following the loss and he replied by yelling, “you’re clueless, you don’t understand and I don’t want to hear you”. “If a chairperson would have said something like that to a ref he would face severe consequences and I demand the same when it’s the other way around” said Galzar.
Coach Eli Rabi also added that following Robinson’s basket after the 1st steal when 11 seconds were still left in the game, Mizrachi was ready to enter on the subs bench but no substitution took place. “I have nothing personal against the refs, but I think Yelon cracked under the pressure and made bad decisions. Maybe I don’t know the rules, maybe kicking a ball grants a player the possession, maybe the substation rules in the final 2 minutes apply to men only. I want to know if the referees union is at peace with the decision to place these two refs for our game” said Rabi. Galzar also added that before the series started, she asked the union to send international refs who can handle the pressure but her request was ignored. “We feel, along with other teams in the league, that the union sends the best refs to the men’s games and we get the leftovers. We don’t want to be the last priority anymore.”
“Unfortunately, near the end of my career I got involved in a scandal like this. In my 20 or so years in the league I have never witnessed such hostile refereeing” said team captain Limor Mizrachi. “In 20 years I picked up one technical foul, you can’t say I’m a violent or impulsive player, and I’ve never been involved in a scandal”. She went on to describe the events which took place: “After that half-court violation call, I went of to the ref and asked him to re-consider because it was such a critical call. Not only did he not reverse the call, he suddenly noticed a blood stain I had on my jersey from a hit I took 15 minutes earlier and decided I can’t continue playing. He took me out of the most important 50 seconds of the season. We respected the decision, I received treatment and re-entered.”
“After another stoppage of play, Biton decided to take me out again with 30 seconds left. I didn’t feel like I was bleeding, and like Tracy (Reid) said, my jersey looked like it should look like at this stage in the playoffs. I begged him to use some judgment and let me play, that I played like this the whole quarter and nobody complained, that this will effect our entire season. He tried to be cool with me and said ‘I’ll wait for you’. I went to our physiotherapist to get a bandage and he immediately signaled for an automatic substitution. By the book it was the right call, once a player gets treatment you have to sub her but what happened to using your own judgment, beyond the dry rules? He said he’ll wait so what did he expect, my teammates or coach to treat me?”
“Despite all the bad calls we pointed out, I don’t know if anyone really intended for us to lose but I expected Biton to control the game and use his judgment. I don’t think we would have lost had I stayed on the floor, all we needed was to hold on to the ball and with all the modesty in the world, the events that happened would not have taken place had I been there.”
Mizrachi is staying realistic however about what this protest could accomplish. “Deep down we know they won’t grant us a make-up game because it’s unprecedented but we couldn’t just let it go. When players or coaches don’t produce they pay the price, what about refs? They make a lot of mistakes, let’s not even go there about the level of refereeing all season in this league, but nobody says anything.”
“I don’t like it how everyone just gives up,” added Galzar. “Had something like this happened in the men’s league they wouldn’t even have to initiate a press conference, everyone would immediately jump.”
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