SImone Busby hurried the basketball up the floor after Baylor’s Amber Howard missed the second of two free throws with 4.3 seconds remaining in Tuesday’s Division II-AA East/Middle Region game at GPS. Right after crossing midcourt, Busby connected on an apparent tying shot that sent the Bruisers’ fans into a frenzy.
Instead, an official ruled that Busby did more than step over the line. A walking call nullified her 45-footer and the Lady Red Raiders escaped with a 51-48 victory.
Because the violation took place near the sideline where the benches were, both coaches had a good look at Busby’s footwork and agreed it was a walk.
“She traveled. We both saw it together,” Baylor coach John Gibson said, referring to the nearby official who made the call. “That was about the only thing we agreed on all night.”
The game’s final basket was Megan Ausdrain’s 15-foot jumper from out front with a little more than four minutes to go, turning the rest into a free-throw shooting contest. Led by Chadarryl Clay’s 9-for-10 success, GPS (11-4, 0-2) rallied from seven points down — its largest deficit — with 13-of-14 free-throw shooting and three times trimmed the deficit to two.
“Is it 10 o’clock yet?” an exasperated Gibson said after all the late stoppages in a game that started at 6 p.m. “It seemed like it lasted forever.”
Baylor (8-8, 2-0) held on despite 9-of-19 free-throw shooting in the last 4:37. It helped that the Lady Raiders had made 10 of 11 before that. The Bruisers were 3-of-9 from the line before the stretch run.
“We didn’t execute well, we didn’t play very well in half-court defense, and we missed enough free throws to win the game,” GPS coach Susan Crownover said. “If we make our free throws it could’ve changed the game’s complexion. They made their free throws early in the game, which allowed them to feel comfortable and get a lead.”
Baylor took the lead for good at 21-19 when Howard drove the lane for a layup with five seconds remaining in the first half. Crownover noted her team’s 11 rebounds in the first half and eight steals for the game were low totals.
“One thing I kept telling our girls was ‘Don’t let it get frantic,'” Gibson said. “That’s one thing the last few years that they’ve been able to do to us is get things frantic. Our girls would make one bad play; then that would lead to another bad play. I told them, ‘Don’t let one bad play turn into three.'”
Ausdrain topped Baylor with 14 points, scoring 10 in the third quarter, and Howard and Mary Ellen Williams added 11 apiece. Clay, who led with 25, and Busby totaled all but six of the Bruisers’ points.
“We tend to want to watch her play,” Crownover said of Clay. “We also need her to incorporate the others. We played better inside, rebounding, in the second half, but we did a lot of standing around before that.”