Disputed call wipes out dramatic Boise State buzzer beater
Another disputed call by a Mountain West officiating crew erased one of this college basketball season’s most remarkable buzzer beaters.
Boise State suffered a 97-93 loss at Colorado State in double overtime on Wednesday night in a game the Broncos thought they had won at the end of the first extra session.
With the score tied and eight tenths of a second left in the initial overtime, Boise State forward James Webb III caught an inbound pass at the right wing with his momentum taking him away from the basket. Webb then banked in an off-balance 3-pointer that appeared to leave his finger tips before the clock struck triple zeroes, seemingly giving the Broncos a dramatic road victory.
As Boise State players mobbed Webb in the corner of the floor, the referees went to the monitor to review the final shot and that’s when things got weird. They waived the shot off after a lengthy review, ruling that the game clock did not start on time when Webb touched the ball and he held the ball for more than eight tenths of a second before releasing the shot.
“We noticed that the game clock was not started on touch,” referee Dave Hall said in a statement. “We then used a stop watch overlay from the monitor review system to determine when he touched it and figure out how many tenths of a second it took from the time he touched the ball until the time he released the ball. After reviewing that several times, we determined that the shot was late. It was not taken in that 0.8-second time frame but actually closer to 1.2 or 1.3.”
The procedure Hall and his crew followed in nullifying the shot is exactly what referees are supposed to do in that situation. The problem arose from their decree that it took Webb well over a second to release the shot.
On his show late Wednesday night, ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt timed the shot at seven tenths of a second. This slow-motion replay is far from conclusive but it seems to suggest it was a lot closer to that than it is 1.2 or 1.3.
The reversal left Boise State frustrated and incredulous. Coach Leon Rice told the Idaho Statesman, “We won that game, far as I’m concerned.” Senior forward Anthony Drmic expressed similar sentiments on Twitter later Wednesday night.
The controversial call comes four days after the Mountain West admitted referees botched a key play in San Diego State’s overtime victory over New Mexico on Saturday. Referees incorrectly ruled a Lobos player had not established himself as being out of bounds on an inbound pass, resulting in a turnover that paved the way for the Aztecs to hit a game-tying 3-pointer and force overtime.
Just like New Mexico couldn’t recover from that gut punch in overtime on Saturday, Boise State failed to bounce back in double overtime Wednesday night. The shell-shocked Broncos surrendered the first nine points in the second extra session and fell to 16-9 overall and 7-5 in league play.
– – – – – – –
Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
