LILLE, France, Aug 4 (Reuters) – South Sudan coach Royal Ivey was highly critical of the officiating as his side’s Olympic basketball dreams came to an end as they failed to qualify for the men’s quarter-finals in a heartbreaking loss to Serbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Serbia beat South Sudan\u00a096-85 in their final Group C match on Saturday. The Africans finished third, but Group A team Greece took the last quarter-final spot on points difference as one of the two best third-placed teams with Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I need an answer. Explain it to me. I’m baffled,” said Ivey, citing the difference in free throws and fouls between the two teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“My guys are out there giving their all – blood, sweat, and tears. And you tell me how we shoot six free throws. We shot one free throw in the second half. One free throw in the second half?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I had dialogue (with the referees), but they wouldn’t talk to me. They gave me a technical (foul) they told me they were worried about my bench standing up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“They were worried about me crossing the line instead of refereeing the game. What is me crossing the line having anything (to do) with it, with the game?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“My guy goes up for a shot, they go underneath him. They are grabbing jerseys. So call them both ways then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m not one to complain and bicker about calls and stuff. But It was blatant tonight. It was very blatant. And I had to keep my cool because (they) threatened to throw me out of the game,” the former NBA player added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The South Sudan team known as the “Bright Stars” become Olympic battlers thanks to the work of former NBA All-Star and president of the country’s basketball federation Luol Deng, who made a call to have more African referees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I don’t know why there are no African referees at the Olympics. This is 2024. I don’t know what the reason is … if we\u2019re representing the continent, we have to be represented fully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LILLE, France, Aug 4 (Reuters) – South Sudan coach Royal Ivey was highly critical of the officiating as his side’s Olympic basketball dreams came to an end as they failed to qualify for the men’s quarter-finals in a heartbreaking loss to Serbia. Serbia beat South Sudan\u00a096-85 in their final Group C match on Saturday. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,2,4],"tags":[7,30,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-39398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"category-featured","9":"category-sports","10":"tag-apie-project","11":"tag-culture","12":"tag-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n