Paul TostoThe region seems filled with agonizing sports stories today.
While the Vikings’ epic failure has drawn lots of attention, an equally painful mess played out this weekend in a women’s basketball game between the University of Sioux Falls and Winona State.
In what appeared to be the game-winning shot, USF player Taylor Varsho sunk a long 3-pointer. The USF home crowd, seeing time had expired on the game clock, stormed the court in triumph.
@NorthernSunConf pic.twitter.com/7JRwXMLYZc
— Alex Schultz (@AlexSchultz29) January 9, 2016
The game referees, though, put .4 second back on the clock — and then assessed a technical foul on USF for their crowd storming the court, even though the game clock was clearly at zero after the shot.
The technical meant Winona State’s Alexis Foley got two free throws, which she hit to beat Sioux Falls by a point.
The refs’ thought process isn’t clear to me. What became clear was that they were wrong.
USF posted a letter from Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference officials acknowledging what happened should not have happened and that the refs have been punished with a reprimand and suspension.
The admission, however, doesn’t mean the final score will be altered. It goes down as win for Winona State and a loss for Sioux Falls. Even baseball great Yogi Berra — the man who once said, “It ain’t over till it’s over” — might be at a loss for words on this one.
Conference officials described it as an “unfortunate situation.”