Pat Chambers on no-call: 'They were trying to foul. Intentionally'
Penn State suffered another heartbreaking loss on Saturday, something that has come far too often for the Nittany Lions throughout the basketball season. But this time, the loss was a little more frustrating than usual.
The Nittany Lions suffered a 61-57 loss to No. 19 Wisconsin in Madison on Saturday, snapping their three-game winning streak. But it was the end of the game — the final five seconds — that was talked about most. Trailing 60-57, Penn State’s Rasir Bolton threw up a three-point attempt and was fouled by Wisconsin’s Brevin Pritzl.
The problem? The foul wasn’t called. Instead, the ball landed out of bounds and was ruled a turnover. That call essentially ended the game. Here’s a look at that play:
No dog in the fight but the refs in the Penn State-Wisconsin game are SO bad. College refs in general.. everything is a review, takes such a long time, then they still mess up the calls. This play was called out of bounds on Penn St. pic.twitter.com/1zyUaz7qgr
— Eric Shapiro (@eric_shap) March 2, 2019
After the game, Penn State head coach Pat Chambers had no trouble stating his thoughts about the missed call.
“They were tyring to foul. Intentionally,” Chambers said, according to Jesse Temple of The Athletic. “Eight seconds, it gets under five. It’s in the basketball handbook. That’s your decision. Pritzl threw himself at Rasir and Rasir was actually in his shooting motion. So I felt like we should’ve been awarded three there. it’s just unfortunate. I think D.J. [Carstensen] is a good ref. I think he has good demeanor. He just missed it.”
Penn State's Patrick Chambers on the no-call at the end of the Wisconsin game: pic.twitter.com/5czJhu0j7R
— Jesse Temple (@jessetemple) March 2, 2019
Penn State had been one of the B1G’s hottest teams entering Saturday’s contest and could’ve potentially pulled off another unlikely upset. Instead, the Nittany Lions dropped another close contest, which has been the theme of the season.
The Nittany Lions are now 5-13 in b1G play and 12-17 overall on the year.