The Smoky Hill boys basketball team took a tough loss to Overland high school January 11th in a wild fashion. With 13 seconds left in the game Buffaloes point guard Quinten Rock had the ball in his hands. The game was tied 72-72 and Rock was poised to take the last shot. With about 11 seconds left in the game, Buffs big William Becker left the corner and set a screen on Rock’s left side. Rock went off the screen and threw up a deep three even though his teammate Mue Muwwakkil was sitting open on the wing.

Now although the shot wasn’t a great one the score was still tied with 7 seconds left. This is when the game went downhill for the Buffs. Overland big G oy Wang ended up with the rebound from Rocks shot and immediately took off up the floor hoping for a chance to get off a shot from half court. As he was dribbling Buffs senior guard Eric Williams went flying underneath him forcing him to pick up his dribble. Because of this action Williams got called for a foul he didn’t even commit it just looked as if he hit Wang.

Now I know anyone who knows the Buffs basketball team is wandering why Williams was in with 7 seconds left in such a close game anyways. Williams was in because Junior Kenny Foster had fouled out earlier in the fourth quarter, and so did senior John Harge who the Buffs heavily rely on.

So it was all just a bad situation for a guy like Williams to be in. Now you have a big going to the free throw line with 1 second left in the game. The atmosphere was crazy and there is a very good chance he could have missed two free throws to win the game, that’s a huge pressure situation. Then to make the last moments of the game crazier Buffs head coach Anthony Hardin gets a technical for throwing his jacket at his team’s bench. To add on to that the Smoky Hill bench got a technical foul for someone talking to a ref, and then Buffs big William Becker got a technical for untucking his jersey with 1 second left! So to recap a big would’ve had to shoot two pressure free throws to win the game, but instead got all the pressure taken from him, because of undisciplined actions late in the game. So instead of shooting two free throws the Blazers ended up shooting seven and getting the ball back.

Everything in those seven seconds changed the game quickly and dramatically. As a team of the Buffs caliber making mistakes like that at the end of the game is unacceptable. The Buffs now have one win and three losses in league play, which is scary going into the end of the season. The Buffs loss two of the three games by just losing focus and discipline late in the game. There was just to many mental breakdowns to late in the game, and when you slip up like that you pay for it and the Blazers game was a prime example of it.