Montana's Replay Monitor Needs To Be Fixed

At the end of the Portland State @ Montana game tonight, it was coming down to the last possession. With the score tied at 69, PSU had the ball with 11 seconds to play.

Tim Douglas got the ball, and eventually made a drive to the hoop. He threw up an off-balance shot (in the interest of fairness, he seemed to travel before the shot, but it wasn't called) and missed badly. The rebound came to Kyle Richardson, who put it back up quickly and made it. However, the refs whistled that the shot came after the buzzer. Watching live, I thought it was good, and I wasn't alone (others on twitter said the same thing). I was confused that the refs didn't at least review it, until I learned that Montana's replay monitor is broken.

I assumed it had broken earlier in the game, but was shocked to read this tweet from Shaun Rainey:

@bigskybball it broke last week and will not be functioning for the rest of the year
— Shaun Rainey (@ShaunRainey) February 7, 2014

Are you kidding me? The monitor is broken and will not be functioning the rest of the season? Is it really that hard to repair or replace the replay monitor, to ensure proper calls? As we saw tonight, it's quite possible that this cost PSU the game, and I would be extremely upset if I were them.

I will try to confirm this with someone from Montana or the Big Sky... but if this is true or unless I am missing something, it is a pretty absurd situation, in my opinion.

EDIT: A lot of folks on twitter are complaining about the refs or calling it home cooking, and to clarify, I don't think either of those things are the case in terms of this call. I'm not saying the refs made the wrong call - only that it looked like they very well could have. Watching it live, you couldn't really say if it was right before or after the buzzer. Also, the fact that it benefited Montana was just pure happenstance... if the same situation but roles reversed, it could have gone against Montana. The issue is that it was a potential game-deciding, bang bang play, and the refs were not afforded the opportunity to check a replay to make sure that they made the right call. And that is not right.

EDIT 2: Great shot and tweet by Connor Ballantyne, showing that it appears the officials did, just barely, get the call right:

I've watched the play frame by frame, and it seems the officials got it right on the floor @BigSkyConf @bigskybball pic.twitter.com/gSIHlyd47S

— Conor Ballantyne (@ConorB76) February 7, 2014

It still doesn't excuse the fact that they didn't have a chance to review it, but that is good that it doesn't appear to have cost Portland State the game.

EDIT 3: Another angle from Shaun Rainey shows the ball out of Richardson's hands, and the red light not on. Hmmm...

The ball almost went in before the buzzer went off, but I did think PSU travelled just secs before that wasn't called pic.twitter.com/JSNFVS9XT2

— Shaun Rainey (@ShaunRainey) February 7, 2014

EDIT 4: And here is a video from Rainey, which shows the ball out of hands before the red light came on, but from what we can tell, the light and clock were not in sync. The video also shows the very clear travel by Tim Douglas!

Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball