The Oregon State-Utah game on Thursday night was huge for both teams. Utah seems to be in good shape to grab an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, but a few slip ups late in the Pac-12 season could have their position in jeopardy. The Beavers are squarely on the bubble, and couldn't afford to drop a home game against a team that would boost their resume.
Oregon State-Utah had the dumbest ending of the college basketball season
Congrats to Utah for committing the worst foul of the year.
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
The stakes were high, the atmosphere was charged and Pac-12 refs were in the building .... so of course this produced one of the silliest finishes of the season.
The scene: Utah is up 10 with seven minutes left when the Beavers make their run. Oregon State took the lead on a layup by noted ref tripper Jarmal Reid with 13 seconds left. Utah ball, down two, shot clock off.
Just don’t foul on a three. Just don’t foul on a three. Just don’t foul ....
Ah dang.
Utah’s Jordan Loveridge made all three free throws to put the Utes up one. There’s 2.2 seconds left and Oregon State is inbounding under its own basket. Unless this is some Grant Hill-to-Christian Laettner stuff, Utah is going to get the win.
Just don’t foul on the halfcourt shot. Just don’t foul on the halfcourt shot. Just don’t foul ....
That’s Oregon State freshman Stephen Thompson Jr., fouled by Utah’s Brandon Taylor, at the best/worst possible time. Thompson hit all three free throws and the Beavers won by one.
Our latest Bracketology projection now has Oregon State as one of the last four teams in. Yeah, that’s a big, big win for the Beavers. Anything to get more Gary Payton/Gary Payton II in our lives.
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