How Many Players Does It Take To Beat Western Kentucky?

Louisiana-Lafayette beat Western Kentucky 72-70 on Jan. 5, but they did in quite the illegal fashion.  As you can clearly see from the video, there are six players on the court for Louisiana-Lafayette when the winning bucket was scored.

 Eye on Basketball breaks it down:

Unfortunately, the officiating crew didn’t catch it – and Western Kentucky was on the losing end of a game-winning shot because they had to guard six players for the final 21 seconds of overtime.

The game was tied at 70-all as Lafayette inbounded the ball with 21 seconds remaining in overtime. The officiating crew had no idea that the Ragin’ Cajuns had an extra player on the court.

The officials are supposed to count the number of players on each sides on the floor.

“It’s a hard pill to swallow,” said McDonald, who team nearly forced a turnover despite being a man down. “What really hurts is the kids. They really played hard.”

“The refs made a mistake,” he added.

McDonald said by the time everyone figured out what had transpired, the officiating crew was already off the court. He was told that he can’t appeal.

“Once they leave the court, you can’t review it,” McDonald said. “From what I’ve been told, you can’t appeal it, either.”