Refs miss multiple violations before Ball State buzzer beater
Maybe they had their eyes closed. Maybe they had a flight to catch and couldn’t risk a third overtime. Maybe each of their whistles failed at once.
Whatever the reason, it’s baffling that the referees at Saturday’s Ball State-Eastern Michigan game ignored multiple blatant violations that preceded Cardinals guard Francis Kiapway hitting a game-winning 3-pointer and giving his team an 88-87 victory.
With his team trailing by two and less than 20 seconds remaining in double overtime, Kiapway badly missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer and Eastern Michigan’s Brandon Nazione got the rebound. That appeared to put the Eagles in position to close out a league victory, but things quickly got weird from there.
Two Ball State players trapped Nazione in the corner and appeared to force either a jump ball or a travel — perhaps both — but neither was called. Ball State’s Ryan Weber eventually ripped the ball away, took about four steps trying to protect the ball and passed the ball back to Kiapway just in time for him to drill his seventh 3-pointer of the game at the buzzer.
All 15 of Kipway’s field goal attempts came from behind the arc on Saturday, and he finished with 22 points. He is shooting 47.5 percent from behind the arc this season, helping Ball State to a 13-6 overall record and a 4-2 mark in MAC play.
Eastern Michigan fell despite 23 points apiece from Ty Toney and James Walker IV. The Eagles are now 10-9 overall, but none of their nine losses were more frustrating than this one.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
