Turkey coach Ufuk Sarica criticised the referees following his team’s 79-70 loss to Latvia on Monday.
The loss was Turkey’s second in Group B as the February window shuts with them not having qualification to the second stage of qualifying assured.
And Sarica in the post-game press conference voiced his frustration at the inconsistency of the officiating, calling for FIBA to review their performance in Riga.
“We can basically say that we played two completely different halves,” Sarica said.
“In the first our game was great. Offence, rebounds, defence. But in the second half, we went into foul trouble with our big men getting fouled early.
“These calls that were made on our big guys were questionable and not necessarily equal for both teams.We couldn’t score on the steals we made. Their opponents’ physicality was strong. They ended up stronger than us.
“One team (Latvia) makes 28 free throws and the other shoots 12 (Turkey). That seems imbalanced. I don’t think that the calls were made equally. I think this should be reviewed.”
