Santa Clara was less than three seconds away from pulling off an upset over No. 7-seeded Kentucky and advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Then, the improbable happened.
After Santa Clara forward Allen Graves hit a 3-pointer with 2.4 seconds remaining in the game for No. 10-seeded Santa Clara, Kentucky’s Otega Oweh made a near-halfcourt shot off-glass for Kentucky to tie the game at 73-all and force overtime. Kentucky went on to win in overtime, 89-84.
But in the eyes of Santa Clara head coach Herb Sendek, the final Kentucky possession of the second half should’ve been stunted.
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“I unequivocally called timeout [after Graves’ 3-pointer], but they [the referees] didn’t grant it, and I think the video evidence is clear [of that],” Sendek said in his postgame press conference. “Anybody’s able to pull it up, which is a likely response after Allen [Graves] hits the 3-pointer that the coach would be calling timeout to set the defense, which I tried to do, and I was successful in doing other than it wasn’t acknowledged or recognized.”
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The aforementioned Oweh finished with a game-high 35 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for the Wildcats. Senior forward Elijah Mahi had a team-high 20 points for Santa Clara.
The soul-crushing first-round loss puts the finishing touches on a 26-9 season (15-3 in West Coast play) for the Broncos, who made the NCAA Men’s Tournament for the first time in 30 years (1995-96). The combined 26 wins are the most for the Broncos in a single season across Sendek’s 10 seasons at the helm.
Next, Kentucky will play No. 2-seeded Iowa State in the second round of the tournament on Sunday.
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