Montana and Northern Arizona played a great game last night in the Big Sky semifinals, with Montana guard Jordan Gregory hitting what amount to a game-winning layup with .4 seconds left in the contest. That gave the Grizzlies a 61-59 lead. But then, something happened that probably should not have happened (via Cody Bashore):
That would be ineligible player Jermaine Edmonds -- clad in a black slacks and a collared shirt -- out on the floor, looking like he's ready to defend the upcoming heave from Northern Arizona. As you'll see in the video below -- which shows Gregory's winner as well as the aftermath -- he hustled back to the sideline, and things got a bit heated from there:
So why was there not a technical foul there? The referees apparently ruled that the player did not interfere with the course of play, so therefore there would be no foul assessed for leaving the bench. However, had the referees not stopped the game -- seemingly to see how much time was left, given their pointing at the clock -- he probably would have interfered with the game, right? To me, that's a pretty clear violation.
Regardless, as you can see Northern Arizona coach Jack Murphy was not pleased, and his screaming at Montana coach Travis DeCuire didn't really help matters as he nearly incited a brawl. He absolutely has a beef here, but I'm not sure what yelling at DeCuire does to help matters.
Montana -- the home team of the tournament, likely why you heard the overwhelming boos from the crowd in the incident after the buzzer -- will play Eastern Washington in the Big Sky Championship tonight for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
