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Santa Clara was less than three seconds away from pulling off an upset over No. 7-seeded Kentucky and advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Then, the improbable happened.
After Santa Clara forward Allen Graves hit a 3-pointer with 2.4 seconds remaining in the game for No. 10-seeded Santa Clara, Kentucky’s Otega Oweh made a near-halfcourt shot off-glass for Kentucky to tie the game at 73-all and force overtime. Kentucky went on to win in overtime, 89-84.
But in the eyes of Santa Clara head coach Herb Sendek, the final Kentucky possession of the second half should’ve been stunted.
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“I unequivocally referred to as timeout [after Graves’ 3-pointer], however they [the referees] did not grant it, and I feel the video proof is obvious [of that],” Sendek stated in his postgame press convention. “Anyone’s in a position to pull it up, which is a possible response after Allen [Graves] hits the 3-pointer that the coach can be calling timeout to set the protection, which I attempted to do, and I used to be profitable in doing apart from it wasn’t acknowledged or acknowledged.”
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The aforementioned Oweh completed with a game-high 35 factors, eight rebounds and 7 assists for the Wildcats. Senior ahead Elijah Mahi had a team-high 20 factors for Santa Clara.
The soul-crushing first-round loss places the ending touches on a 26-9 season (15-3 in West Coast play) for the Broncos, who made the NCAA Males’s Match for the primary time in 30 years (1995-96). The mixed 26 wins are essentially the most for the Broncos in a single season throughout Sendek’s 10 seasons on the helm.
Subsequent, Kentucky will play No. 2-seeded Iowa State within the second spherical of the match on Sunday.
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