St. John’s suffered their first loss of the season late on Saturday night in a game that was as dramatic as it was controversial.
The Johnnies led for most of the game, but a pair of missed front-ends down the stretch left the door open for Seton Hall.
The score was 74-73 with 12 seconds left after Shamorie Ponds missed a free throw. After Seton Hall’s Myles Powell had a shot blocked into the stands, Seton Hall was forced to take the ball out on the baseline. L.J. Figueroa tipped the inbounds pass and saved it to a teammate, but one of the officials inadvertently blew a whistle, stopping the play dead when he thought that Figueroa had stepped out of bounds.
Here’s the clip (I’m working on getting better video, this is what I have to work with now):
Now Mustapha Heron & Shomarie Ponds missed the front end of a 1&1s St Johns was only up 1... but this is a really bad premature whistle that gives Seton Hall a second chance to win the game.. and they did pic.twitter.com/wp97FdSwL8
— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) December 30, 2018
Here’s another angle of the play, where you can clearly see that the official blew the whistle when Figueroa was still in-bounds:
The referees went to the monitor to review the play on what they said was a review of a timing error, but the rules stipulate that an inadvertent whistle meant the ball went back to the Pirates.
Once the game was restarted, Seton Hall on the sideline with 3.1 seconds left, and this is what happened:
PIRATES FANS! How about last night??? This was the FOX footage of Shavar's game-winner. We want to see YOUR footage. Reply to this tweet with what you recorded at the game! #HALLin pic.twitter.com/6b4uIyvChj
— Seton Hall Men's Basketball (@SetonHallMBB) December 30, 2018
The loss dropped the Johnnies to 12-1 on the season while giving the Pirates yet another good win on their resume.