Sports

Ooh-Way cries foul after loss to Team Nike

It was post-game approach Tony Rosa had hoped he wouldn’t have to take. But the Ooh-Way Records coach also knew it was a possibility coming into the heavily-anticipated rematch with Team Nike in the Dyckman championship game.

“I’d rather complain about the officials when I win,” the coach said. “When I lose it comes off as an excuse. We knew going into this tournament that if we saw them in the championship game that we were going to have to deal with more than a regular basketball game. I don’t want to kill the refs, but they got eight straight calls [going to the basket] down the stretch.”

Ooh-Way, which beat Team Nike during the regular season, fell 71-70 in overtime in the Dyckman final in front of a capacity crowd at Monsigner Kett Park Wednesday night.

After Dwight Hardy put them ahead by one with a short jumper with 13.5 seconds left in overtime, a foul was called as Team Nike’s Anthony Glover drove along the right side. The former St. John’s standout made both free throws with three seconds remaining to give his team the crown.

“He threw the ball over this head,” Rosa said. “If he just rushed to the basket and did what he could, how could you give him a foul call for that?”

His team certainly had its chances to put the game away. Sundiata Gaines beat the halftime buzzer to put Ooh-Way up 29-26. The former Archbishop Molloy standout scored a game-high 21 points and buried consecutive 3-pointers to put his squad up 49-40 with 5:14 left in regulation. Ooh-Way led 57-54 with 1:32 remaining, but Team Nike shot 7-of-10 from the free throw line in the final 1:25.

The referees were the talk of the Ooh-Way fans outside the park after the game. According to Rosa, Team Nike guard Keydren Clark appeared to lose the ball for what could have been a backcourt violation with 37.3 seconds remaining. Instead a foul was called and Clake made made 1-of-2 free throws to trim the lead to two. Ooh-Way did hurt itself down the stretch. After a Dwight Hardy turnover, Clark made two free throws with 22.7 seconds left to play to send the game to the extra session.

“I think I cost the game for my team on that turnover I threw in the backcourt,” Hardy said. “It sent ‘Kee-Kee’ to the line after that.”

Ooh-Way had an assistant coach assessed two technical fouls and ejected for arguing with an official late in the first half. Up just three with 37.7 seconds left it appeared to get the benefit of a call when the referee called a technical foul for the team’s bench spilling on to the court and then took it back, according to Team Nike coach Bingo Cole. He didn’t want to hear anything about the refs being on his side.

“That was the rumor going around that we were going to get the calls, we weren’t going to lose,” Cole said. “They have been saying that all year that the refs were on my side. If that was the case I wouldn’t have lost two games.”