Georgia basketball team loses after fan throws stuffed animal on the court
If you thought the Zion Williamson injury was the weirdest thing to happen in sports on Wednesday, things were even stranger in Athens, Ga.
Shoe malfunctions are rare, but have you ever heard of a basketball team losing because of a stuffed animal? That’s what happened to the Georgia men’s team, which lost 68-67 to Mississippi State.
The Athens Banner-Herald reported that the teams were tied when Mississippi State’s Quinndary Weatherspoon was fouled with 0.5 seconds to play. He missed the first free throw and it appeared the game might be headed to overtime. But a fan threw a stuffed animal that landed near Weatherspoon’s feet on the court as he was shooting.
Georgia was given a technical foul and Weatherspoon made the free throw for that technical. He then intentionally missed what was the second of his original two free throws and Mississippi State won.
Here is the moment:
“That’s a huge play, someone throwing a little bulldog,” Mississippi State coach Ben Howland said. “I don’t know who did that but man, I would be so frustrated if I were his (Georgia coach Tom Crean) team, the University of Georgia, to have that happen. That was crazy. But what helped us was the fact that he was awarded the technical foul ... and he made the first, and I called him over and told him to miss the second, because 0.5 left it’s hard once it bounces to get it and get the shot off which is what happened.
“We were blessed and fortunate.”
This story was originally published February 21, 2019 at 8:23 AM.
