Following the opening round of games in the 2016 Accra Basketball League, game officials were once again in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. The second week of the burgeoning season had a lot of controversial calls being called referees to the ire of coaches.
Tudu Magic beat Air Force 43-40 in the first game which took place on Friday May 13 at the Lebanon House in Accra before DC Dynamics lost 59-65 to Prison Reformers. The final game pitched defending champions Braves of CEPS against Navy which resulted in a 55-29 win for the multiple title winners.
Dynamics game against Reformers was highlighted by some dodgy calls from referees including calling a travel violation on Forward David Maja in the post which never happened.
Another poor call preceding the aforementioned play happened in the early part of the fourth quarter when Emmanuel Mensah was called for fouling Reformers Guard Andrew Ayienab. Mensah’s hands were clearly in the air and in the proverbial “cylinder” when defending Ayienab.
Such calls drew Dynamics Coach Feranmi Olulonyo mad and had to be led away multiple times from the officials table complaining vehemently against the calls. The loss was the team’s second since gaining promotion into Division I.
2015 Coach of the Year Brimah Lawal also had a lot to say about officiating in Braves game against Navy. The usually composed trainer lost his cool following successive calls on Point Guard Baniba Dodzie which forced the mercurial Guard to miss heavy portions of the game.
On one of his customary drives to the basket, Dodzie was deemed to have extended his arm into an opposing player though he had the right stance doing so.
Officiating has come under the scope in recent times following a myriad of poor decisions that have marred the game including an offensive foul on Accra Polytechnic’s Emmanuel Gyampong despite the latter setting a perfect screen in the UPAC (Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges Championship) final game.
Accra Polytechnic lost 44-45 to University of Ghana.
