Clemson women's shining March moment wiped out because clock started late ahead of buzzer-beater
COLUMBIA, S. C. (AP) — It was a wild celebration and a moment of March bliss for Clemson, which had not enjoyed many of those the past two decades.
Mia Moore's running 3-pointer seemingly went through in time to lift the Tigers to a buzzer-beating win over Southern California in the first round of the women's NCAA Tournament on Saturday. Until officials cleared the floor to look at replays and determined that the clock hadn't started when it should have when Moore took an inbound pass and dashed up the court. The referees took away the basket and the score remained 61-all.
Clemson would have to play five more minutes if it hoped to advance, and the Tigers fell 71-67 in overtime to USC. “Initially, I thought it was good, but I guess I came up short,” Moore said. During their review, officials took a stopwatch to the video and found that Moore's shot and a potential foul that could have sent her to the free-throw line came after the 4.
4 seconds that Clemson had to work with when it inbounded the ball. Clemson coach Shawn Poppie thought his team had a signature March Madness win. At worst, he thought Moore would head to the foul line with almost no time left on the clock.
Instead, the ruling gave new life to USC, and Clemson, which had reached the NCAA Tournament just once since 2002 before this year, had to reset. “Everything in their mind is, ‘We have just won the first-round game,’” said Poppie, in his second year leading the Tigers. “So for them to have an emotional, again, you just have a quick timeout to motivate them and for whatever reason, we have to go back out there.