Aggies win, with help from clock
Inadvertent time stoppage with 5.6 seconds left leads to confusion
COLLEGE STATION — Thirteen years after the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” at halftime during the Super Bowl in Houston, and with the Super Bowl headed back to Houston, Texas A&M now has its own version of a provocative in-game malfunction.
A “belt-pack malfunction.” So it’s not nearly as scandalous or revealing as Janet Jackson’s halftime glitch in 2004, but this one left the Georgia Bulldogs howling all the same, following the Aggies’ 63-62 comeback victory Saturday in Reed Arena.
Georgia entered its final possession trailing by one point, but the clock inadvertently stopped with 5.6 seconds remaining. The Bulldogs’ J.J. Frazier had the ball to the right of the top of the key, and under pressure glanced at the shot clock and thought he had time to pass inside the paint to Yante Maten.
Maten received the pass from Frazier, and officials whistled a foul on A&M when Maten attempted a layup. With the clock still stuck at 5.6 seconds and everyone in the arena in suspense, officials used game video to replay and count down Georgia’s final possession, determining that time had run out before the foul was called on A&M.
“Our kid (Frazier) looks up and thinks he has time to make a play, but he doesn’t,” a frustrated Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “I don’t know who stopped the clock. I’d like to know.” SEC supports ruling
A&M officials said a “belt-pack” worn by one of the referees — or perhaps the belt-pack transmitter on the scoring table — malfunctioned and unintentionally stopped the clock. A&M downloaded data from the “precision timing system” over the game’s final seconds and sent it to the SEC office for study, A&M athletics event director Erin Jones said.
The SEC responded Saturday night that NCAA rules were “appropriately administered” in this situation.
The Aggies (10-8, 2-5 SEC) snapped a two-game losing streak, while the Bulldogs (12-7, 4-3) have lost two of their last three. Robert Williams led the Aggies with 18 points and D.J. Hogg followed with 16, while Maten led the Bulldogs with a game-high 19 points.
“I believe they made the right decision,” A&M coach Billy Kennedy said of the officials’ final call, adding that he also understood why Georgia would be upset by the outcome.
In the end, the Bulldogs shouldered plenty of blame for the Aggies even being in position to win. Georgia led 39-29 at halftime and 56-43 midway through the second half before A&M began chipping away at the double-digit deficit. Four Bulldogs turnovers in the final 1:16, thanks primarily to an A&M full-court press, helped seal Georgia’s fate.
“They were passing it to the corner, and that’s where we trap,” Hogg said of the Bulldogs’ inbound passes. “We were able to come up with a couple of turnovers and speed them up. They didn’t handle the pressure very well, and a couple of times they pretty much gave the ball to us. (It) put us right where we needed to be.” Momentum builder?
Controversial or not, the Aggies needed a win in the worst way after losing four of their first five SEC games. They travel to Mississippi on Wednesday before playing at No. 7 West Virginia on Saturday, the latter as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge.
“We need to play bet- ter, and hopefully this win will get us to play better,” Kennedy said. “I usually don’t get very upset at halftime, but that’s probably the most upset I’ve gotten since I’ve been here.”