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Controversy in Ramat Hen - Ramla made the finals
Lior Klinger
,04/07/2005 |
On the day channel 5 decided not to broadcast Ramat Hen & Ramla’s semi finals series, the game was decided in the final seconds. Maybe a bit sooner actually, depends who you ask. Ramat Hen led by 5 with one minute to go, but after Robinson’s jumper the refs took Limor Mizrachi out of the game with 30 seconds left and Ramla got two steals which led to two lay-ups and a 66-65 win. Ramat Hen scored one field goal in the final 7:45 after getting off to a great start.
Game story, post game reactions and the controversy in full detail inside.
Maccabi Ramat Hen 65 – Elizur Ramla 66
Full stats
If there’s a crueler way to lose a game, I can’t think of one. Great first quarter, tied game at the half, 9 point edge after 3 for Ramat Hen but the 4th quarter was all Ramla who played superb defense and got some unexpected help from the refs. Shameka Christon could hardly talk after the game with all the excitement: “It was a really hard game, thank god for Crystal for tipping the ball to me. It looked like we were going to game 5 but we didn’t give up, we hung in there and got the win. Our defense deserves a lot of credit.”
Ramat Hen came out with a lot of energy on both ends of the court in a do or die game. Ramla was held to 6 points in 6 minutes as Ramat Hen displayed probably it’s best defense of the year. Ramla played right into Ramat Hen’s hands and took bad shots, though Robinson missed some good looks too. At the other end Ramat Hen hardly took any time off the shot clock and ran at every possible chance. Christon wasn’t getting any touches but picked up 2 early fouls, as did Robinson. The score was 17-6 with 3 to play after Tracy Reid’s 3pt play. Christon hit her first jumper of the day but Rada Vidovic answered with a trey. Ramla scored 5 points in the final minute with Christon’s 3 and Robinson buzzer beating jumper to make it just 21-15 after 1.
Robinson & Christon erased the 6pt gap from beyond the arc early in the 2nd but Walker scored and Mizrachi also hit from outside. The pace slowed down and it seemed like Ramat Hen should’ve built a real lead when they were dictating the up tempo style. Nussel and Mizrachi stroked from three and put Ramat Hen up 33-30 with 3 to play but Christon with 4 points and Grinboym with 2 from the line gave Ramla their first lead of the game at 36-35. Soni Music’s 3pt play ended the quarter, 39 all. Christon was leading the way for Ramla with 14 pts & 9 boards. Reid had 10 for Ramat Hen, Vidovic scored 9 and Mizrachi added 8.
The high scoring game turned into a defensive grinder in the 3rd, the score was 5-3 in favor of the locals after 5 minutes of play. Christon, Robinson and Osipova were rolling out but Goren scored to tie the score at 48 with 3 minutes left. Vidovic scored 5 straight to spark an 11-2 Ramat Hen run, she had 10 points out of her team’s 14 at that point in the 3rd. Ramat Hen led 59-50 going into the 4th.
Vidovic took three players to the rim and put Ramat Hen up 63-54 with 7:45 to go, timeout Ramla. Ramat Hen’s next basket came with 2:30 left to play. Christon with an assist to Osipova and a put-back made it 63-60 before Ramat Hen scored their final basket of the season. The score was still 65-60 with 1 minute to go, Robinson was pressing Mizrachi and knocked the ball away. The ref called a half court violation despite the fact the ball touched Robinson’s leg. Ramla got the ball and Robinson found nothing but the bottom of the net with a jumper.
Ramla kept pressing the ball and again knocked it out of bounce. Another controversial call gave the ball back to Ramla with 51 seconds left. Robinson missed but Osipova got the putback, 65-64 and Ramla quickly used a foul to give. The game clock showed 28 seconds when the refs suddenly noticed a little blood stain on Mizrachi’s jersey. It wasn’t fresh but they made her leave for the bench. Ramat Hen’s bench was trying to figure out what just happened and didn’t have a stain-remover handy as the game resumed.
Ramla pressured the ball, Robinson tipped it out of Vidovic’s hands to Christon who raced down the court and scored to put Ramla up 66-65. Ramat Hen had no timeouts and Mizrachi watched Robinson steal the inbound pass and dribble away the remaining seconds.
Despite all the complaints to the refs, even Eli Rabi knows you can’t win games with 1 field goal in the final 8 minutes. “Ramla realized they can lose this game in the first quarter, we’re not playing cart-board cutouts out there. They were great defensively. When we were up nine we had 4 or 5 straight possessions when we just missed under the basket, you can’t get any closer than that. There were 3 extremely tough calls by the refs in the final minute, Limor played with that stain for 20 minutes” said the disappointed coach.
Tal Natan does not agree that his team stole the game: “We have experienced players, I told them all game long that this game will come down to one final shot. We played awesome defense in the 4th, our match-up zone was terrific and we won. I want to complement Ramat Hen, I understand how they feel right now but that’s sports, sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down.”
For Ramla:
Christon 18 pts, 16 rebs
Osipova 17 pts
Robinson 15 pts
For Ramat Hen:
Vidovic 21 pts
Reid 14 pts, 11 rebs
Walker 12 pts
Mizrachi 8 pts
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