Referees steal victory from Ohio State basketball vs. MSU

The Ohio State basketball team got a victory stolen from them by the referees after multiple missed calls cost them points against Michigan State.

It was too good of a game for the referees to get involved. All game long they made it about them. In the end, they took what should have been a victory for the Ohio State basketball team away. Ohio State lost their second straight game, falling to Michigan State 71-67.

The refs refused to call fouls on Michigan State at the end of the game despite there being massive amounts of contact. E.J. Liddell and Duane Washington got hammered late in the game and there was no call from the refs despite them calling fouls with less contact earlier in the game.

No doubt the most egregious error by the referees occurred right before halftime. Duane Washington banked in a three at the end of the shot clock, but the referees reviewed and deemed it a shot clock violation. It was the wrong call, as you can clearly see below.

Absolute lunacy.

Washington’s really good night gets overshadowed by this. He had 17 points and was Ohio State’s leading scorer. C.J. Walker was also brilliant, having 12 points and 5 assists off the bench. It’s just too bad that the game had to have the result it did because of bad officiating.

The officiating was so bad that Chris Holtmann got thrown out for the first time of his Ohio State career at the end of the game. He made sure the officials knew how bad they did at their job tonight. It was truly a shame because Michigan State played really well. That’s what should have been talked about.

If Michigan State would have played this well without the refs helping them win the game, that’s one thing. Tom Izzo’s team played really hard tonight and you have to give them credit for that. But to have officiating that bad is quite shameful.