Auburn guard Samir Doughty was called for a highly controversial foul at the end of the Tigers’ Final Four game against Virginia on Saturday that helped the Cavaliers steal the game.
Virginia was down 62-60 with just over a second left and running an out of bounds play. Tigers coach Bruce Pearl seemed to give his players clear instructions to avoid committing a foul, but they still did so anyway.
Doughty was caught in the air trying to defend a Kyle Guy 3-point attempt and bumped into him:
Refs have Virginia in their bracket pool. Only explanation. pic.twitter.com/LI9cpqHZ6T
— Barstool Sports (@barstooltweetss) April 7, 2019
Doughty was called for a shooting foul, giving Guy three free throws. Guy made all three to give Virginia a 63-62 lead. Auburn had one last attempt to win the game with 0.6 seconds left, but their efforts came up short.
The call was reminiscent of the controversial foul call in the Tennessee-Purdue game from earlier in the tournament and seemed to be consistent with the officials’ pattern of calling fouls when they see them.
“Controversial or not, we got the win,” Guy said to CBS after the game.
