Notre Dame defeated Pittsburgh in opening round of the ACC Tournament on Tuesday, and the game ended on an extremely controversial call.
It appeared Notre Dame and Pitt were headed to overtime when the score was tied 54-54 and the Fighting Irish botched two chances at a gamer-winning buzzer-beater. Markus Burton first missed a jump shot, but teammate Trae Davis had just enough time to grab the rebound and attempt a put-back. Davis also missed.
There was a whistle on the play, and the announcers initially speculated that the officiating crew wanted to check for goaltending. The whistle was actually for a foul on Pitt forward Zack Austin, who contested the rebound from Davis. Replays determined that the foul was called with 0.5 seconds left, which sent Davis to the line.
Davis hit the first free throw and missed the second, but it didn’t matter. There wasn’t enough time left on the clock for Pitt to get a shot off, so Notre Dame prevailed 55-54. You can watch the sequence here.
Austin only appeared to jump for a loose ball on the play. There was very little contact with Davis, and it did not look like the shot was impacted. You would think there would have to be clear contact for an official to call a foul like that at the buzzer in a tie game, but Notre Dame caught a huge break.
Pitt head coach Jeff Capel was seen berating the official who made the call, and you can understand why. That was a horrible way for Pitt to effectively see their season come to an end.
