Utah and Oregon State both won at the buzzer Friday.
Oregon St. 79 UCLA 77
I watched this game twice.
Score was tied 72-72 with 1:00 remaining. Van Oelhoffen stole the ball at 0:39.8, to deter Betts from an FGA beneath the basket.
At 0:15.5, T. Gardiner made 2 FT to put the home team in the lead. UCLA coach Close couldn’t believe the call against Betts.
From the televised point of view, the ballhandler is turned away from the camera, it didn’t look a foul. Not a call to make with 15 seconds left with the score tied.
The especially-notable officiating began at 9:04 of the second quarter.
Flashback to 9:04 2d.
Bruin Rice drew a shooting foul. In the act of shooting, Rice floored Beaver Beers.
It took seven minutes for the officials to sort things out. Rice got two FT for being fouled, but gave two FT back for fouling Beers, which the stripes upgrade to intentional.
Rice’s elbow and Beers’ face came together with enough force to knock Beers out of the game, but to me, it looked like an accident.
From Raegan Beers’ game-ending injury, the Pac-12 Network person got material for the final 29 minutes. I counted the elaborate recaps of the Beers incident: 7.
Very big Betts clearly had a real mismatch against Rees, about half the width of Beers. Betts shot 11-of-15, which the analyst charged to Rees. Look at this way: If Betts shot 10-of-15, that would’ve been worse than her season average.
Every four in-game minutes, the broadcaster reminded us about the injury to Beers. Rees drew her third foul before halftime, Beers recap.
At 3:13 of the 2nd, Beaver Marotte was cited for excessive contact during a shot. That was the second time UCLA benefited from a foul upgrade, and OSU coach Rueck drew a technical. At halftime, Rueck described the 2nd quarter as bizarre. End flashback.
The third strikingly-odd foul call was with 0:15.5 left in the game.
The lead changed hands FOUR times in the last 15.5 seconds. (The old joke is “I want my last two minutes on the physical plane to be the last two minutes of an NBA game”. The final one minute of UCLA at Oregon St. took 14 minutes in real time.)
0:15.5 72-74 Gardner FT
0:06.6 75-74 Dugilic 3FGM
0:02.3 75-76 Van Oelhoffen FT
0:01.1 77-76 Betts catch-and-shoot of inbound pass
0:00 77-79 Van Oelhoffen 3FGM catch-and-shoot of inbound pass
Media has reported for two days that people have said it was the best finish they’d ever seen in a basketball game any gender, any level.
USC 58, Oregon St. 50 on Sunday wasn’t as good a game.