You never know what you are going to get when you go to a sporting event and Friday’s matinee between Hapoel Holon and Nes Ziona was no exception. A tough battle ensued on the court that finally saw Brad Greenberg’s Nes Ziona down Stefanos Dedas’s Holon 84-76 but the scoreline doesn’t tell even half of the story from the Lev HaMoshava.

Throughout the 40 minutes, the referees called fouls galore with a total of 54, 33 for Holon and 21 for Nes Ziona blown by the zebras while the hosts went to the tree throw line 41(!) times including 20 trips to the charity stripe alone by Braian Angola who ended the afternoon with 30 points.

Dedas’s squad saw three players, Chris Johnson, Isaiah Miles and Guy Pnini foul out, Frederic Bourdillon, Nate Sestina and Tyrus McGee get called for four fouls a piece while Pnini was also ejected. If that wasn’t enough, the colorful bench boss who guided his team to the Champions League Final 8 where they will face San Pablo Burgos, was also sent to the showers with just a couple of minutes left in the game for complaining about the officiating or the lack thereof.

Holon Chairman Eitan Lanciano was also vocal on the sidelines asking Dedas to take out the regulars and put in the youngsters Aviel Neeman Tzedek and Ofek Fogelman while telling Nes Ziona chairman Yaniv Mizrachi following the game that the league referees are the only ones who are never critiqued and that one day it’s Holon and the next it will be Nes Ziona who will suffer the same fate.

Dedas himself was not content with what had gone on on the court after he had warned the referrers prior to the game about making sure they pay attention to Angola, he told The Sports Rabbi, “Before the game I said to the refs, ‘guys I watched all of Nes Ziona’s games, please take care of the flopping of Angola’. They were not prepared at all… as a result of it, Angola shot more free throws than all of Holon. Second thing is the refs made a mistake because I said why you don’t give a technical for flopping (on 3pts shot he fell down like our player did before). They gave a technical to us but not to them.”

The Greek coach lives and breathes Hapoel Holon and is a true reflection of the club and fanbase, one that has drive, desire and plenty of fight. “We expected a tough game as Nes Ziona is good team. We didn’t play excellent game for sure but we fought till the end. I know our success this season makes a lot of people to be against us and want to destroy us but we will be there, we have character!”

Dedas continued, “About the old guy from Nes Ziona bench he was telling me sit down stop crying don’t talk. When refs look at him he just put his mask back to cover himself. Me as a coach always I will start from myself to see the mistakes. I am not perfect. But I will not allow no one to treat me like a clown.

“I fought in all my career to make strong teams with character. The same I do in Holon. People who doesn’t respect me or in my club will be treated same way! I didn’t come to Israel to be politician and fake correct. I am dying every day on the court for this club and I will be always like this!”

As for the game itself, Holon entered the matchup looking to edge closer to the top of the standings while Nes Ziona tried to stay competitive for a playoff position as the second round of the Israel Basketball Winner League moved towards its conclusion. Dedas’s visiting Holon jumped out to a 15-9 lead with Isaiah Miles taking center stage but Nes Ziona ripped off a 15-0 run to end the quarter 24-15 with Braian Angola pacing the hosts early on.

Chris Johnson, Tyrus McGee and Nate Sestina began cutting down the lead but points from Angola, Patrick Miller and Jerome Meyinsse kept Brad Greenberg’s squad in front 46-39 at halftime. Miles, McGee and CJ Harris pulled Holon even two minutes into the third quarter but Angola kept filling ten basket while Tal Dunne scored important points to bump up the lead to 63-55. Finally in they final frame, Angola, Meyinsse and Tal Dunne kept scoring as Nes Ziona took the 8-point win.

Braian Angola spoke about the importance of the win, “We are really good when we play our best and we are trying to stay in the race for the playoffs. We have this win going into the Europe Cup Final Four which is great and we won a couple of big games this past week against strong teams. The game was very aggressive and both teams put the refs into a tough situation, I focused on myself and did my best.”

I’m happy that our guys kept their poise and kept playing despite some distractions,” began Nes Ziona coach Brad Greenberg. “They did a wonderful job of staying focused and I felt good as to how they were playing and focused on the defensive end. We drove on them and had bonus early, at home we gave the second best opponents points per game just 75. When we keep a team in the 70s we have a chance to win and I always feel good when they aren’t ringing up 25 point quarters. We played some zone but also guarded the ball straight up and helped out on one on one as well.”

“Our guys have pride as to which they are as players. Sometimes we play closer to our capacity as others. We’re just not as consistent as we should be. If we can play closer to that level all the time, that’s the chap,merge can we be more consistent as a team. We have to prove we can do it.