WNBA officials blew another call

NEWYORK — For the second time in a week during the WNBA Finals, the league acknowledged a late officiating mistake.

The WNBA said the officials missed a shot clock violation in the deciding Game 5 on Thursday in which the Los Angeles Sparks beat the defending champion Minnesota Lynx 77-76.

“After reviewing postgame video, we have determined that Nneka Ogwumike’s shot with 1:14 remaining in regulation time should not have counted due to a shot-clock violation, and that the referees improperly failed to review the play under the instant replay rules,” Renee Brown, WNBA chief of basketball operations and player relations, said in a statement Friday.

Ogwumike’s jumper with 3.1 seconds left, off the rebound of her blocked shot, won it for the Sparks.

The league earlier this week admitted a mistake after officials missed an eight-second backcourt violation that benefited Minnesota late in Game 4 on Sunday. The Lynx scored on that possession for a four-point lead with 12.5 seconds left and won 85-79.

Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve was angry in her postgame news conference Thursday night about both missed calls, saying the league needed to do more than just apologize and “send a memo.”

“It’s really unfortunate that players continually put themselves out there, playing and competing at a really high level. Whether it was the eight-second call in L.A. or the game today, doesn’t matter, OK? The game today, it’s not fair to the players,” Reeve said. “It’s not enough just to apologize or send out a memo that they got something wrong, OK? These players are so invested and something must be done about the officiating in this league because it’s not fair to these great players we have.”