Georgia loses to Alabama in OT
For a millisecond, Dustin Ware thought he had made the shot of his dreams -- a desperate 3-pointer to win a tournament game. Then he had the crushing realization that the shot did not count, that his coach had called timeout before the ball left his hands.
"It was a real quick high to low," the Georgia guard said later.
The negated shot with 0.8 seconds remaining in regulation left Georgia tied 53-53 with Alabama, and the Bulldogs went on to lose the second-round SEC tournament game 65-59 in overtime Friday afternoon at the Georgia Dome.
For Georgia, which led by 14 points with 6:44 left in regulation, the defeat cast a considerable cloud of doubt over the team's prospects for an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament. For Alabama, the victory boosted its NCAA hopes and set up a game Saturday against Kentucky in the SEC semifinals.
After Georgia took a 48-34 lead on a Travis Leslie dunk, Alabama dominated the remainder of the game, outscoring the Bulldogs 19-5 in the final seven minutes of regulation and 12-6 in overtime. A 3-pointer by Tony Mitchell with 1:33 left in OT put Alabama ahead for good.
The unsettling loss was hardly the last impression the Bulldogs wanted to leave with the NCAA tournament selection committee. Soon after the game, ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi removed the Bulldogs from his projected tournament bracket, forecasting that they will be among the final four teams eliminated by the committee.
"We can only wait now and find out what's our fate," Georgia forward Trey Thompkins said.
Said Leslie, who scored a game-high 24 against Alabama: "We're just going to be praying and hoping the committee chooses us."
Coach Mark Fox, who still maintains the Bulldogs (21-11) have an NCAA-worthy resume, said the team will gather privately Sunday evening to watch the selection show on TV.
"That could be a great moment. It also could be a very disappointing one," Fox said. "That should be done in private, just in case."
A win Friday probably would have clinched an NCAA berth for the Bulldogs. Instead, they lost for the second time in six days to Alabama, which remains on the NCAA bubble.
Alabama's comeback from the 14-point deficit was fueled by the Crimson Tide's rebounding dominance down the stretch and some untimely missed free throws and turnovers by Georgia.
Alabama coach Anthony Grant said he began to sense a possible victory when his team cut the deficit to seven with 3:39 to play.
"We just kept chipping away," Grant said.
The comeback was completed by a Trevor Releford layup with 4.2 seconds left, tying the score at 53. Ware then received the inbounds pass from Thompkins and raced upcourt.
"Trey had a good inbounds pass, and I was really trying to get it up the floor and see what would happen as soon as possible," Ware recalled. "And then I saw time running down, so I figured I'd let it go."
Oblivious to the whistle that recognized Fox's timeout, Ware banked it in from 23 feet or so.
"I thought it was good," Ware said. "But then I looked at the referee, and he was calling timeout. So I knew Coach had called timeout."
Said Leslie: "Definitely I thought we won [on Ware's shot]. But I looked at the ref, and he pointed at Coach and said it was timeout. Couldn't do anything about it."
Fox said he wanted to get the ball in the frontcourt before calling timeout, but "I thought we would have a little more time than 0.8. I thought we would get the timeout with a couple seconds. As a matter of fact, I think when I first hollered, it was around two seconds. I think I was trying to glance at the clock.
"But the referee went to the monitor and obviously got it right," Fox continued. "Ended up with 0.8. So, sure, I mean, I wish I hadn't called it because the ball went in. But, you know, that's a tough, tough break."
Said Alabama forward JaMychal Green: "I'm glad he called the timeout."
About the Author
Tim Tucker, a long-time AJC sports reporter, often writes about the business side of the games. He also had stints as the AJC's Braves beat writer, UGA beat writer, sports notes columnist and executive sports editor. He was deputy managing editor of America's first all-sports newspaper, The National Sports Daily.
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