Mike Rhoades: Official 'blew the call' in Penn State OT loss
NEW YORK – The sequence was one Mike Rhoades would have preferred to have not mattered. His Penn State team scrapped its way to overtime against Georgia Tech on Saturday, despite a 10-point second-half deficit, and could have closed out a win in regulation. Or, any number of other plays could have allowed Penn State to come out ahead before the final two seconds of overtime at Madison Square Garden.
But, leading the Yellow Jackets 81-80 with the shot clock unplugged in OT, those plays were not what decided the game. Owning the 1-point advantage with just 16 seconds to play, Penn State secured a rebound off a Georgia Tech last-ditch miss to seal the win.
Until the officiating crew decided otherwise.
Instead awarding an on-the-floor foul to Miles Kelly with 2.1 seconds to play, whistling Penn State point guard Ace Baldwin, the sequence led to a one-and-one at the free throw line. With it, the Georgia Tech forward hit the first, and the second, and left the Nittany Lions on the losing end of an 82-81 decision.
“I didn’t see anything. He blew the call, but that’s how it goes,” Rhoades said of official Tommy Morissey. “Ace was on the ground and that guy turned around to get a shot off. Ace didn’t touch him with his hands. His left heel is the one that hit Ace as Ace was turning on his back. That’s as matter of fact and as clear as I could tell you.”
Call sends Penn State to OT loss
In a game that Penn State traded punches with Georgia Tech throughout, the sequence proved fatal to the Nittany Lions. Instead of possession with a lead, the two Kelly made freebies left Baldwin to hurl a last-second heave that hit the backboard and fell to the MSG hardwood without incident.
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Equal parts critical of the call and the performance that didn’t allow Penn State to create more of a cushion that could have led to a win, Rhoades finished his comments with a call for his team “to be better” moving forward.
“That’s part of the game. It’s very unfortunate. To me, it’s inexcusable, but that’s life,” Rhoades said. “I’ve been through this before and we’re not going to make excuses. The effort we had, the approach we had late, we got ourselves back in the game to win the game.
“I thought we should have won the game, but we didn’t. We got to be better. We got to figure it out so we could put this game away. So we’re not in that position to let someone else mess the call up, to impact the game.”
