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Referees missed key call just before Kentucky’s miracle shot
Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

Referees missed key call just before Kentucky’s miracle shot

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports  |  By Grey Papke  |  Last updated Mar 20, 2026 2:49 PM ET

Kentucky star Otega Oweh made a miraculous shot to keep the Wildcats alive in Friday’s NCAA Tournament game, but the Santa Clara Broncos will be very unhappy with what happened just before it was taken.

Santa Clara and Kentucky played a wild, back-and-forth game in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday at Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Mo. The Broncos’ Allen Graves appeared to have given his team a win with a three-pointer with 2.4 seconds left to go ahead 73-70, but Oweh pulled up from just inside halfcourt and banked it in off the backcourt as time expired to send the game to overtime.

Replays showed that Santa Clara coach Herb Sendek was desperately signaling for timeout after Graves’ shot went in, but did not get one. Part of that is because Kentucky inbounded the ball very quickly, and officials simply did not see Sendek giving the signal quickly enough.

Santa Clara players were celebrating as they ran back up the floor, as they believed they had done enough to win the game. Sendek probably wanted to focus them and set up the defense. Oweh’s shot was still fairly contested, however, so it wasn’t as if the Broncos players had completely checked out.

Sendek will probably be even more frustrated since Kentucky was granted a timeout just 30 seconds earlier even though it wasn’t completely clear that they had full possession of the basketball.

Kentucky went on to win 89-84 in overtime. Santa Clara fans will be seeing that final sequence of regulation in their nightmares for quite a while.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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