BARTLESVILLE, Okla. -- For a fleeting moment Thursday night at Bruin Fieldhouse, the 37 turnovers didn't matter. The blown nine-point lead didn't matter. The fact that ACU couldn't put Central Oklahoma away in regulation or the first overtime didn't matter.
All that mattered is that
Jamie Meyer's fast-break basket with 0.2 seconds left had just given the Wildcats a 99-97 lead over the Bronchos.
And then that didn't matter, either
Before the final buzzer sounded, ACU's bench was whistled for a technical foul after several of its reserve players ran onto the floor after Meyer's basket. After the technical free throw was assessed, UCO's Jordan Stark buried two free throws with that same 0.2 seconds left to tie the game at 99-99, sending the game to triple overtime.
The Bronchos then used that momentum to outscore ACU 12-6 in the third overtime to take a 111-105 win over the Wildcats in a quarterfinal-round matchup in the Lone Star Conference Post-Season Tournament at Bruin Fieldhouse.
The loss negates the outstanding performance by senior
Jamie Meyer, who, in her last game as a Wildcat, poured in a tournament single-game record 44 points on 15 of 26 shooting from the field. She also hit a tournament-record 14 of 14 from the free throw line and grabbed 11 rebounds.
ACU entered the tournament as the No. 3 seed from the LSC South, and with a 17-10 record needed at least two wins -- if not a tournament title -- to continue its season into next week's NCAA Division II South Central Region Tournament. Thursday night's loss, however, more than likely puts an end to the Wildcats' 2009-10 campaign.
The way the Wildcats' season ended will be a sour memory, mostly because of the way the game ended.
ACU, which led by as many as nine points with 4:57 to play in regulation, couldn't close the door on the Bronchos, who are now 22-6 with the win. The Wildcats had a chance to win the game in regulation after a pair of
Autumn Whitaker free throws tied the gameat 74-74 with 39 seconds left, but a turnover with nine seconds left sent the game to overtime.
UCO led throughout most of the first overtime before the Wildcats fought back to tie the game at 83-83 on a pair of free throws by
Jody Meyer.
Jamie Meyer then gave the Wildcats an 85-83 lead with a pair of free throws with 599 seconds left. UCO post Ashley Beckley then missed a layup with 33 seconds left, and after
Jody Meyer grabbed the rebound, it looked as though the Wildcats would be able to pull out the win.
But
Kelsey Darby-Holson's pass to Whitaker went off her hands and out of bounds, giving the Bronchos one more possession with 24 seconds to play. With 14 seconds left, Beckley didn't miss and the game went to a second overtime tied 85-85.
Jody Meyer scored 32 seconds into the second overtime to give the Wildcats an 87-85 lead, and it was a monumental basket because it represented the school-record 581st assist in the career of
Kat Kundmueller. She finished the game with 12 assists to give her both the single-season assists record (213) and career record (584), breaking the records held by the great Jennifer Clarkson.
ACU led throughout much of the second overtime before UCO's Brianne Grisham nailed a 3-pointer with 36 seconds left in the period to knot the game again at 95-95. But
Jamie Meyer again gave the Wildcats the lead at 97-95 when she buried two free throws with 16 seconds to play. UCO, however, answered with seven seconds left when Rose Anderson hit a driving layup, and that's when the controversy began.
ACU inbounded the ball to Kundmueller, who fed Whitaker along the ACU sideline. With less than two seconds to play, Whitaker drilled a perfect pass to a hustling
Jamie Meyer, who banked in a layup with 0.2 seconds to play to give ACU a 99-97 lead.
But before the final buzzer sounded, at least four ACU reserves bounced as far onto the court as the 3-point line, forcing the officials to stop play. After a lengthy discussion, the officiating crew assessed a technical foul to the ACU bench, and Stark calmly nailed two free throws for a team that hit just 24 of 39 free throw attempts in the game.
"They (the officials) were right," ACU head coach Shawna Lavender said. "I knew it as soon as I looked out there. It's part of the game. You have to have the discipline. You must be disciplined for 40 minutes or 55, or however many minutes you are out there. Whether its .02 seconds or 40 minutes it takes discipline for every single minute you are out there. They (officials) were absolutely right. To be honest, we had chances to win it before that and we didn't do it."
LSC coordinator of basketball officials Tony Stigliano told LSC pool reporter Nick Eatman that the officials didn't have a choice but to call a technical, citing Rule 10, Section 4, Article 7 of the NCAA Basketball Rulebook, which states, "Delaying the game by preventing the ball from being promptly made live or by preventing continuous play, such as bench personnel entering the
playing court before player activity has been terminated. When the delay does not interfere with play, it shall be ignored."
"With 0.2 seconds left, we don't know what's going to happen," Stigliano said. "First of all, the ball could be inbounded and a foul could be called. There were still some scenarios out there that could've happened. The bottom line was the players on the court interfered with UCO's ability to inbound the basketball. With just so many scenarios that could've occurred, that's the reason the technical foul was called."
The Wildcats then simply ran out of gas in the third overtime, and their four turnovers in the final five minutes didn't help their cause, either. Those four turnovers gave them an unbelievable 37 for the game, a staggering number even for a team that averaged 19.4 per game.
"There's no possible way you win with 37 turnovers," Lavender said. "It comes down to 37 turnovers and we would have been very lucky to win the game with 37 turnovers. It's too bad a team has to lose a game like this. Every player player from both teams poured their hearts into this game, and you can't ask for anything more than that in post-season play.
"That's what makes our conference so great," she said. "You know going in that every game will be a great game. Every possession was a fight. I was so proud of our kids hanging in there. They left everything on the floor. We had our chances to win it, but it just didn't go our way tonight."
ACU NOTES
*
Jamie Meyer's 44 points is a new LSC Post-Season Tournament single-game scoring record and is the third-highest scoring game in ACU history. Meyer owns the ACU single-game record with her 49-point effort in a 149-147 quadruple-overtime win over Texas Woman's in January 2009.
*
Jamie Meyer set a new LSC Post-Season Tournament single-game record for free throws made without a miss as she went 14 for 14 in the loss against Central Oklahoma.
* ACU senior point guard
Kat Kundmueller had 12 assists in the game to give her 213 assists on the season and 584 for her career. She is the new all-time ACU leader in both categories, passing the great Jennifer Clarkson in both categories.
*
Jamie Meyer finishes her career with 1,368 points, which is 14th on ACU's all-time list. Her 589 points this season are the 14th-highest single-season point total in school history.
* Jamie's twin sister,
Jody Meyer, recorded her 17th double-double of the season in the loss with 16 points and 17 rebounds. She finishes her career with 822 rebounds, which is ninth on ACU's all-time list.
*
Jamie Meyer is just the ninth player in ACU women's basketball history to finish her career with at least 1,300 points and 600 rebounds.
