BASKETBALL/European Championship: Boris Schmidt and Sigmundur Herbertsson the two referees from Saturday's make-or-break qualification match to the top 16 of European basketball were criticised by Irish players and management after several crucial calls denied them an aggregate victory in Aarhus on Saturday.
Ireland lost by 16 points after an inspirational performance from Barcelona's Christian Drejer helped Denmark wipe out the lead Ireland had built up in the first leg.
But the focus was on the officials, and in particular on a non-decision for Jay Larranaga with just seven seconds left in normal time. The Real Madrid player was clearly fouled while driving for the basket but Mr Herbertsson's whistle never went to his lips.
It should have given Larranaga two shots from the free-throw line. Instead, the game went into overtime on a score of 74-60, 120-all on aggregate.
"Usually you don't like to make an excuse but it was ridiculous," said Dan Callahan. "In all my life playing basketball, I've never seen what happened to Larranaga in the last play of regulation. I mean they almost took his head off and they don't call a foul. I feel robbed right now, to be honest with you."
Callahan had a superb match, scoring 22 points, filling the void left by Pat Burke's unavailability because of pre-season commitments with his NBA side, the Phoenix Suns. He even tried remonstrating with Schmidt after a controversial technical foul. "Yeah, I tried to explain to the referee. I spoke to him nicely saying, 'Please call this fair. This is the biggest game in our country's history'. It's just unbelievable."
Head coach Gerry Fitzpatrick summed up the Irish viewpoint.
"It was a frustrating game that became more about the refereeing decisions than about the game itself."
Denmark did everything asked of them, with Drejer, especially in overtime, and Chris Christoffersen producing vastly improved performances from last week in Dublin.
Also, Ireland's key players like Larranaga and Marty Conlon found themselves in foul trouble early on, while Cal Bowdler fouled out of the match entirely in the fourth quarter.
In a depressing scenario, another two-year cycle must now be undertaken before qualification to the elite level can be achieved. By then players like Conlon (37) and Callahan (34) may not be around.
"In the next two years we have got to go back down, which is really disappointing because we felt we were the better team," said Callahan.
"We felt we should be up there competing with the likes of Italy and Spain but none of that matters now. We lost and no one is going to remember the referee making bad calls. We have a lot of talent on this team. We have young guys coming up, developing, like Conor Grace, but right now it's hard to think about next year."
TOP SCORERS: Ireland: Dan Callahan 22, Jay Larranaga 18, Mike Bree 9. Denmark: Christian Drejer 39, Chris Christoffersen 18.
