Last week, Division II Sioux Falls managed to nail a game-winning, buzzer-beater from way down town to defeat rival Winona State 59-58.
After the 30-foot bomb swished through the net, the horn sounded, the clock read 0.0 and Sioux Falls players rushed the court to celebrate.
There was just one problem…the three referees went to the scorer’s table to review the final shot. The officials determined that there was technically still 0.4 seconds remaining on the clock when the ball went through the net. At this time, they cleared the floor and allowed the final 0.4 seconds to play out, right?
Wrong.
Instead of making a common sense call, the referees stuck Sioux Falls with a technical foul for fans being on the court while time remained on the clock (even though the clock read 0.0 and the horn sounded). Winona State then calmly nailed two free throws to win the game 60-59.
Check out this amazing debacle:
Here’s the full-length, raw footage from Deadspin.com:
The refs have been suspended 4 games each for their error in judgment.
Here’s the full statement from NSIC commissioner Erin Lind:
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.
