Virginia coach Tony Bennett said he did not know what happened on the final play of regulation in the eighth-ranked Cavaliers’ 69–62 overtime victory against Duke.
Neither did Blue Devils coach John Shearer — and he was pissed.
“I would still like an explanation,” said Scheer after the game. “I don’t have clarity on that.”
Duke (17-8, 8-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) appeared poised for victory when Kyle Filipowski drove to the basket on Saturday’s final play of regulation and two defenders contested his shot. The officials initially whistled a foul, receiving heavy disapproval from the fans, but removed it after a lengthy review – the ACC later stated that the decision was incorrect.
On the play, which had 1.2 seconds remaining, Filipowski drove in from the left and the officials called a foul. Replays showed that Reece Beekman appeared to get a clean block on the shot, but also made enough physical contact to knock Filipowski to the floor.
“He played attacking the basket big time, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s hitting those free throws,” Scheer said.
“He told me after the fact that the call was made after the buzzer and you could see the ball left his hands before zero point,” the officials said. “So I don’t know what the rule is.”
The league released a statement hours later, saying that the officials applied the rules incorrectly and that Filipowski should have been sent to the line for two free throws.
According to the league, the officials determined after a review that a foul had been committed by Virginia’s Ryan Dunn after time had expired. But the NCAA rulebook states that the ball is in flight made it a live play with players in those positions considered “an airborne shooter” who should have led the free throw, according to the statement.
Instead, it was Armaan Franklin making the big shot, a 3-pointer with 39 seconds left in overtime to cap off a 23-point performance. Franklin said he was initially out of position for the play, but adjusted and point guard Keihi Clarke found him.
“I saw him mashed up the side with Kihi, and I just ran around the corner. Her man didn’t stop. I just had an open corner look and I shoot lakhs a day,” he said.
Clark added 16 points and five assists and Ben Vander Plas scored 13 for the Cavaliers (19-4, 11-3), who won despite a 9-for-22 performance from the free throw line. Vander Plas was also credited with drawing 11 of the 24 fouls called against Duke.
Jeremy Roach led the Blue Devils with 16 points and Tyrese Proctor had 14. Filipowski, who averaged 15.5 points, was scoreless.
Trailing 58–53, Duke got a driving basket from Roach with 1:31 left and a 3-pointer by Jacob Grandison in front of the Blue Devils’ bench to tie it up with 50 seconds left. Neither team scored again in regulation.
Vander Plas drew applause when he made a pair of free throws to open the overtime scoring. At that point, nine of the 12 shots from the Virginia line had been missed. Clark’s driving basket and another free throw gave the Cavaliers a 63–58 lead, and two baskets by Proctor were all the Blue Devils managed in the extra period.
Duke, now 2–6 in league road games, became the 39th consecutive ACC opponent to fail to reach 70 points at John Paul Jones Arena.
The Cavaliers used an 8–0 run to take a 54–51 lead with just over five minutes left in the game. Ryan Young hit a pair of free throws to pull Duke within a point, but after Virginia failed to score, the Blue Devils committed their third shot clock violation of the game with 3:29 left.
Virginia used a 14–5 run to take a 35–30 lead, but Duke responded with a 19–9 run that included eight points from Darrique Whitehead, who had missed the last four games with an ankle injury.