BBL third place game turned into a circus
The initial match between these two teams finished with an 84:83 Siauliai victory, after Vytautas Sarakauskas scored a last second two-pointer. The officials counted it in, signed the game protocol immediately and were unable to reverse the decision to count the basket once they had seen replays of the last play.
The replays in the arena clearly showed that Sarakauskas touched the ball after time had expired and red lights on the game clock had already turned on. Ventspils went on to make an appeal and BBL satisfied their complaints. As it was not possible to change the score, the league decided to replay the game on Sunday in Vilnius.
However, Ventspils left Vilnius right after the finals and never came back. Siauliai was the only team on court on Sunday 1 p.m. and after 15 minutes of waiting, they were given a technical victory.
Believing that justice is in their side, the Latvian side launched one more appeal and even though it was rejected, because the regulations of the BBL Elite Division do not provide for the use of scoreboard video in the arbitration of the games, in the interests of Fair Play, the BBL Board decided to award a joint third place to Siauliai and Ventspils.
The decision is very unusual, but at least makes up for Ventspils, who should've won the game in the first place. The third-place award ceremonies will be conducted for each of these clubs during the bronze-medal games of their respective countries. The third-place prize fund will be split equally among the two teams, 7500 Euros each.
