3:20 PM
Southern Utah coach Todd Simon said gymnastics at the scorer's table cost his team in a 75-68 double-overtime loss to California on Thursday.
The chaos began when Spurgin, a center who is 5-11, went to the free throw line with his team up 41-34 at the 14:02 mark of the second half. Spurgin made both of his free throws. He was credited with one free throw. Southern Utah had a 42-34 lead.
Simon tried to correct the error at the scorer's table but couldn't get officials to reverse it.
The game was tied at the end of regulation before Cal won in double overtime. Southern Utah has lost three in a row.
Southern Utah coach Todd Simon tried to get the scorer's table to change a free throw miss to a make, but couldn't get officials to reverse it.
Simon said he got the officials' attention after a couple possessions after he argued with the scorer's table. The scorer's table said they were correct. We couldn't do much beyond that. The official didn't go to the monitor. The math had to be done by the stat crew, the scorekeeper, etc. The stat crew made a miss and a dead-ball rebound. Very strange.
The Golden Bears covered the spread and were a minus 3 favorite.
Simon said the NCAA doesn't have any recourse after a game.
According to the NCAA rulebook, scoring errors are to be addressed by officials by comparing their records after each goal, each foul and each charged timeout, notifying the referee at once of any discrepancy. The referee will accept the record of the official scorebook if there is no error and the referee knows that another decision can be made. The referee will accept the progressive team totals of the official scorebook when the discrepancy is in the score.
Simon said the official should have handled it in the game.
