Horrible No-Call, Turnovers Lead To Gamecocks Loss At Mississippi State

Jan 9, 2013; Starkville, MS, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks guard Bruce Ellington (23) passes the ball to South Carolina Gamecocks forward Laimonas Chatkevicius (14) during the game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at the Humphrey Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Spruce Derden–USA TODAY Sports

Yes, the Gamecocks did turn the ball over, ahem, 24 times. Yes South Carolina did shoot, ahem, 54 percent from the free-throw line. And, yes, Carolina looked like a group of middle schoolers against the 1-3-1 zone.

But for the love of all things holy, how blind do you have to be to miss an OBVIOUS foul on the last shot of the game?

Let me rephrase that.

How bad do you have to be at your job to not call what was an obvious hack on the last shot of the game?

The craziest thing about all of this? There’s a 99 percent chance that Garnet and Cocky is the only place you’ll read about this disgusting officiating display.

Bruce Ellington took a three as time expired and got absolutely hacked across his shooting hand. Naturally, the ball deflected horribly off the backboard and the refs decided that it was deflected.

Carolina got another shot with .8 seconds left, but Brian Richardson couldn’t connect after scoring a career best 20 points.

There were plenty of other odd things going on in this game.

Everyone on each team was catching cramps. Ellington and two Bulldogs cramped up for extended periods of time in the second half.

Also, Michael Carrera played for the first time since injuring his hip… and only saw the floor for seven minutes.

Even odder: Brenton Williams, the team’s leading scorer, played just six minutes after being yanked for turning the ball over.

SC fell to 10-4 on the year and 0-1 in SEC play.