Time stood still.
Some of the best athletes say that’s what happens as the 90mph fastball is approaching, yet he can see it clearly as it hurtles toward the plate and that sweet spot on the bat. Or when the Hail Mary is put up 40 yards from the end zone at the end of a do-or-die game.
Or when Rutgers women’s basketball team makes yet another miraculous comeback against a No. 1 team.
But Monday night, time literally stood still. The game clock froze with 0.2 seconds left. And Rutgers center Kia Vaughn grabbed Tennessee center Nicky Anosike as Anosike grabbed a rebound and tried to get off a shot. And a whistle blew. And the ref’s hand went up as 0.0 finally crept onto the clock face.
The clock stood still and allowed Anosike, a 64 percent foul shooter, to calmly sink two shots from the foul line and give her Vols a 59-58 win over No. 5 Rutgers.
Time stood still and cut short the Scarlet Knights’ celebration. For a blink of an eye, Rutgers had become the first to defeat a No. 1 team in consecutive games. Coach C. Vivian Stringer was hoisted in the air by an assistant. Epiphanny Prince raised her arms in triumph. Then time stood still – again.
Again a Rutgers-Tennessee matchup is overshadowed by controversy. Last season, Don Imus’ post-championship vitriol stole their moment. Now, on a night that was supposed to celebrate two of the best teams in the game, two Hall of Fame coaches and highlight the game’s contribution to a fundraising effort for breast cancer, the officials are the thieves.
“The controversy at the end of the game last night at Tennessee was an unfortunate incident and Rutgers deserved to win,” Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said in a statement. “I am saddened because my team played a hard-fought game and to have it finish in such a manner overshadows the accomplishments of two exceptional teams.”
Rutgers had been down by 11 at the half. They reeled off 10 straight points to open the second, and Tennessee didn’t score until about 6 minutes in. Rutgers owned a one-point lead after Essence Carson’s jumper with 26 seconds left. Tennessee let the clock wind down before Shannon Bobbitt missed a long jumper. Candace Parker rebounded and missed with 1.8 seconds on the clock. Then came Staten Island’s own Anosike. And time stopped.
An analysis of the game tape shows more than 1.3 seconds elapse while the clock is stuck at 0.2 before running to zero while Anosike rebounds and is hacked by Vaughn.
The inventor of the clock told espn.com it looked like human error. The SEC says the officials acted properly. The Rutgers athletic director says the Scarlet Knights won the game in regulation and beseeched the NCAA to take that into consideration come tournament selection time.
This was the third time in under a year that Rutgers has been involved in a time-stopping – and heart-stopping – ending. Stanford pulled off an upset in Rutgers’ season-opener when Prince fouled Candice Wiggins with 0.1 left. In March, Rutgers continued its run in the tournament when Duke All-American Lindsey Harding missed two free throws with 0.1 left in the regional semifinal.
“It just seems those tenths of a second just seem to keep popping up in the Scarlet Knights’ life,” Carson said Monday night.
Watch out for Rutgers in the Final Four, when March Madness turns into April Anger – and time could stand still again.
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Made ya look!