College Hoops Team Wins On Crazy Buzzer Beater - Gets Technical For Celebrating, Loses.
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Star Tribune – A buzzer-beating three apparently beat the buzzer by so much that it cost the host Sioux Falls women’s basketball team a victory Friday night.
After the Cougars’ Taylor Varsho hit a long three-pointer as time appeared to expire, students swarmed the court to celebrate what they thought was a dramatic one-point victory over NSIC-leading Winona State. But after a lengthy review, officials ruled that 0.4 seconds remained and called a technical foul on the Sioux Falls bench for the court storming.
Winona State’s Alexis Foley, an 89 percent free-throw shooter from White Bear Lake, hit both free throws to give the Warriors, who are ranked 12th in NCAA Division II, a stunning 60-59 victory over Sioux Falls.
With 4.9 seconds left, Foley missed one of two free throws that would have put the Warriors up by three. Instead, trailing by two, Sioux Falls called timeout to advance the ball beyond half-court. Varsho ended up with the ball and hit a three from about 27 feet. The clock showed time expired, and fans spilled on to the floor.
When the referees reviewed the shot, though, they determined time hadn’t expired and called the technical. Winona State simply ran out the final 0.4 seconds after Foley’s two technical free throws.
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Want to know who’s the worst in this entire situation? In a shocking turn of events, it’s not the refs. It’s the Winona State coach.
Winona State coach Scott Ballard acknowledged that he brought up the idea of a technical foul to the officials. “I put the bug in their ear,” he told the Winona Daily News “You can’t have people storming the floor before the game is over. That’s interfering with the conclusion of the game. There were hundreds of them. It wasn’t like a dozen. It was the entire student section.”
Ballard knew that his team was luckier than it was good: He told the Winona newspaper: “We feel fortunate. We feel that we caught a break. I think I’m going to buy a lottery ticket.”
Feeling pretty good about yourself huh? Hey if you can’t coach your team to guard an inbounds play out of a timeout, might as well go for the next best thing – beg for a technical foul for excessive celebration. What a loser.
A technical that is absolutely ludicrous by the way considering the game clock in the gym said 0.0 and the red light was on. What are the fans supposed to think? Wait to celebrate a 30 footer until the possibility of an official review is confirmed? Coach is exactly right:
Sioux Falls coach Travis Traphagen told Ian Frazer of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader: “If that clock stops and there’s a second left on, .5 seconds left on and they’re on the floor, absolutely there should be a technical. But when the clock says zero and the red light is on and everything, how are the students supposed to know (whether) the game’s over?”
When I woke up this morning I did not expect to be fired up about a Division 2 women’s hoops game between Sioux Falls and Winona State, but here we are.
Oh and for some good news. The refs were suspended 4 games.
As many of you are aware, we experienced an unfortunate situation Friday, January 8th during the Winona State University and the University of Sioux Falls women’s basketball game where the outcome was, in part, affected by a misapplication of a rule. The NSIC Women’s Basketball officials are expected to have knowledge of all NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules and properly adjudicate them during a game. In this instance, it has been determined that this expectation was not met by the crew in charge of officiating.
It is important to state that overturning the result of the game cannot and will not be considered. However, in addition to receiving a letter of reprimand, each of the game officials involved have been suspended from four NSIC contests along with becoming ineligible to officiate the post season in the NSIC this year.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time we have ever publicly discussed the suspension of an official or officials. Typically, when we have instances such as this, we handle it internally and deal directly with the institutions involved. To publicly discuss this unfortunate situation is not something we wanted to do, but in this instance, we felt this course of action was warranted in the spirit of transparency.
We want to assure you that the conference takes all officiating matters seriously and we appreciate your cooperation as we work to address issues as they arise. Although officiating is an extraordinarily difficult and often thankless job, our student athletes, coaches, and administrators deserve proper and consistent officiating.