I can't believe we've only wrapped up Wednesday. It's already been one hell of a week. In Big Sky news, Portland State has put down upstart (see below) Montana State 79-77 in yet another thriller. 5'6" [choose from among sparkplug, fireplug, jitterbug, etc.] Jeremiah Dominguez led the Vikings (no doubt aided by mascot Victor E. Viking) with 22 points. Montana State fought back valiantly from 9 down with 5:44 left, led by some good work in the post by All-Name candidate Divaldo Mbunga. (Underrated announcer Stephen Bardo took every advantage to call out Mbunga's name, to predictably delightful effect.) In an improbable finish, up 77-74, Dominguez made an ill-advised drive down the lane and turned the ball over. After a timeout, MSU's Marquis Navarre drove the lane and kicked to Erik Rush in the corner. Rush sent the ball to Branden Johnsen at the top of the key, and Johnsen stroked a trey with 14 seconds left for the tie! Without calling timeout (how many times can I say this?), PSU brought the ball up court quickly but calmly. Dominic Waters drove the right side of the lane and dumped to a wide open Julius Thomas for what turned out to be the winning dunk with 3.5 seconds left. 
Here's where it got weird. MSU, with one timeout, inbounded the ball to half-court, at which point the player turned to the opposite baseline while straddling the timeline and....pointed. Apparently he was trying to call timeout, but it all seemed oddly leisurely. I will say I've never seen a coach employ the "get it to half-court then call time" strategy with so little time left. After some consultation, the refs seemed to give poor Montana State some credit for intending to call time as soon as the ball was caught, and upped the remaining time from 1.8 to 2.5 seconds. Sadly, the additional 0.7 was squandered, as MSU's desperation 3 to win was fumbled and blocked. Bye bye Cinderella. And worse, bye bye Divaldo.
No comments:
Post a Comment