Thirty-Nine Minutes Later, Disputed Call Leads to Victory

Andy Leatherman’s layup at the buzzer was ruled good, no good and then good again, giving Texas A&M; a controversial 88-86 victory over Texas Tech at Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday in a Big 12 Conference game delayed 39 minutes when the Aggies refused to play an overtime.

Official Charles Range ruled that Leatherman’s basket was good, setting off a protest from Texas Tech Coach James Dickey and his players. The three officials consulted a TV replay and then reversed the call, leaving the score tied and necessitating overtime.

This time it was Texas A&M; Coach Melvin Watkins who protested, keeping his team in its dressing room and refusing to play the extra period.

Thirty-nine minutes later, the call was reversed again, restoring the basket and the victory for Texas A&M; (5-9, 1-2). Texas Tech is 9-4 and 0-2.

“He [Range] said, ‘Melvin, the basket is good,’ ” Watkins said. “At that point, I told my team to go to the locker room. . . . What else did we have to wait around for?”

Range, however, said he never told Watkins the game was over.

Watkins admitted that officials at one point seemed hesitant about how to rule the game’s final shot, but was confident his team won.

“It’s a victory,” he said. “The officials say it’s a victory.”

Texas Tech Athletic Director Gerald Myers said the school will file a report perhaps as early as today telling the Big 12 the Red Raiders’ position on the events surrounding the controversial layup.

“We’ll just wait and see what happens with the appeals process,” Dickey said. “We believe there should have been an overtime and there was not an overtime.”

KXAS-TV in Dallas showed a tape of the play which seemed to show the ball still in Leatherman’s hand as time expired.