Controversial shot abruptly ends Kean’s promising Men’s Basketball season

By Kervin Coleman | Published March 3, 2023

“West floats it up! Doesn’t get it to fall, rebound by Gunn; West… oh my goodness!”  Kean color commentator Jon Edmond exclaimed as senior forward Letrell West buried the shot that had an entire gymnasium under the assumption that Kean won the game.

But wait. “They’re saying he stepped out,” Edmond said suddenly. “It doesn’t count!” 

Many elements in basketball heighten the stakes of the situation. Controversy, chaos, and emotions are on display. With the game on the line, in whatever situation somebody is in, you are locked in. All eyes are glued to the product at hand, the hairs on your arms raise, and attention spans increase. These stipulations apply to every individual in the gymnasium, from the coaches and players to the referees and fans alike. 

Now picture yourself in every one of those positions in D’Angola gym on Feb. 18 for the first home Cougars playoff game since the 2013-14 season against the TCNJ Lions. The game told a story of its own and was a dog fight the entire way. In a game that was tightly contested and came down to the final possessions, it sometimes wavered away from Kean and they kept finding themselves in predicaments where they’d need to claw back. 

In a game that broke even at halftime, the competitive fury led it to the final possession of the second half. West nails a jump shot to tie the game with six seconds remaining and sends the game into overtime. With fifteen seconds left in overtime the game score is 83-81 with the Lions ahead. In a classic case of situational irony, West grabs a rebound and sprints down the floor. A hesitation dribble move turned into a forced shot attempt, which resulted in a miss.

“Once I saw we secured the rebound, I tried to get back in bounds as fast as I could,” West said. “I didn’t know where I was on the court.”

Senior veteran center Mario Gunn grabs the offensive rebound and passes the ball out to the left corner back to West. West catches the ball, looks down, and then raises a three-pointer for the win and cashes it all net. Or so everyone in attendance thought. The sideline referee blew his whistle with the call that West had stepped out of bounds. 

“I heard the referee blow the whistle midway through my shot and I knew he was calling me out of bounds,” West said.

With this turnover, the Cougars stay down by two points with four seconds left. The Lions then ice the game with two free throws and that led to the end of the Cougars season. The gymnasium roared then sat down with feelings of agony, pain, and disbelief. West himself went and sat near the out-of-bounds marker, as he faced the jurisdiction of the whistle. 

“After the game I was soaking in the moment because that was the last game of my collegiate career,” West said. “It’s no going back and no need to hold on to anger and resentment over a basketball game.” 

The debate became whether or not the call was just and if West’s foot hit the out-of-bounds marker or not. Kean’s color commentary disagreed heavily with the call, exclaiming that West was in bounds. The fans jumped put of their seats, pouring all over the parquet floor angry with the referee’s verdict. 

There was no instant replay conversation within the referee’s which also caused an uproar as the replay was shown on the Jumbotron, with the motions looking to be too fast for the naked eye. Kean lobbied mightly for a referee’s timeout review.

“My teammates and I knew that I was going to make the shot, for me to take the win away from us hurts,” West stated.

In a sense of clarity, West and his teammates watched film of the shot time and time again, slowing it down frame by frame in an attempt to reap some closure over their disappointment. West came to the conclusion that the referees made the correct call.

 “It made me mad that I stepped out. I lost us the game,” West said. 

However, basketball is a team sport and functionally that singular shot did not lose the game for Kean. Mistakes by the Cougars early and hot streaks by the Lions help propel the Lions to be in the position to win the game. Kean continuously fought back up until the very end. The fourth-seeded Cougars dropped the game versus the TCNJ Lions in overtime by a score of 85-81. The Cougars finished with an 18-8 (11-7 in NJAC) record, their best mark since the 2010-11 season. 

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