Since your example is more ore less a negation (they refused to play ball), there are some slang expressions you could resort to, such as τους κάνανε κόγξες / τους κάνανε χουνέρια…
On the flipside, if you add a negation to one of these Greek expressions: ευτυχώς δεν τους κάνανε κόνξες could be...