Getty Image / Lance King
- Last night’s game between Duke and Wake Forest required a late winner
- The refs may have gotten a key call wrong on that game-winning basket
- Read more BroBible articles here
Last night’s matchup between Duke and Wake Forest featured a ton of scoring, a huge comeback, and a wild ending, but it also featured a bit of controversy.
Wake Forest trailed by as much as 19 in the second half of the game, but a 12-1 run in the middle of the half put the Demon Deacons right back in the game around the 9 minute mark. The teams battled back and forth the rest of the way with Duke managing to maintain a lead for most of the game.
With 17.5 seconds left in the game, Duke was whistled for a somewhat questionable foul that sent Wake to the free throw line to tie the game. Then this game really got interesting.
With time winding down, Paolo Banchero drove to the basket, but wasn’t able to finish at the rim. A couple of Duke players followed the miss and it appeared Mark Williams managed to tip the ball back in for the win.
The basket was waved off with the refs deciding the ball was still above the cylinder when Williams contacted it. Then they went to the monitors. They decided upon review that there was no goaltending and counted the basket with 0.4 seconds left in the game.
There’s just one issue. They may have been right with the original call.
Re: Duke’s W last night on Mark Williams’ put-back … is this not basket interference? I’m not 100% on the rule interpretation here. The first tap is clean and legal. The second one, it appears there’s a quick touch as the ball is back over the cylinder. Refs counted the bucket. pic.twitter.com/rryYLSfixy
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) February 16, 2022
I’m not entirely sure you can definitively say that ball was outside the cylinder on the first tip, but even if the refs got that part right, the second tip seems like it should have been considered goaltending.
Duke’s Williams doesn’t appear to be gathering the ball with the first tip. Instead, it appears that it is an attempt to back into the basket. The hand also is not still in contact with the ball when the second hand takes control of it.
It’s a point that was almost rendered moot as Wake Forest’s 3/4 court heave at the buzzer nearly sunk Duke, but it rimmed out. That will leave Demon Deacons fans wondering if their team was robbed of overtime by the refs questionably overturning a call.