Tulane spent Thursday night in New Orleans building a 15-point lead, then lost 87-85 to Jackson State on a timeout that the scoreboard had already told it did not exist.
The Green Wave had exhausted all four of their timeouts when someone asked for one more in the front court. The officials called an administrative technical foul, and Daeshun Ruffin hit both free throws with 1.6 seconds left to put Jackson State up 87-85.
https://x.com/espn/status/2118548902722867386
How did Tulane get to the point of asking?
The game was tied 85-all with 1:50 to play, which is a long time to leave a possession in the hands of a team that had already used up its pauses. Tulane had led by as many as 15 and carried a 42-38 lead into halftime, so the comeback was Jackson State’s doing for most of the night. The finish was Tulane’s.
I find the timeout the least dramatic part of this and the most revealing. A rule exists for exactly this moment: you get a set number of stoppages, the scoreboard tracks them, and asking for another one costs you points. Tulane did not lose to a bad bounce or a hot shooter. It lost to bookkeeping. Who made the call is not in any source I can find, so I won’t guess.
The free throws were the best shooting of Ruffin’s night
Ruffin finished with 17 points on 4-of-15 shooting from the field, and he was 9 of 10 at the line. The last two of those were the ones that counted, and neither required a screen, a read or a defender. Dorian McMillian led the Tigers with 23 points and seven rebounds, and Mike Williams added 20 off the bench.
Tulane still got a last look. TJ Nadeau, who scored 16, got a shot off at the buzzer with McMillian’s hand in his face, and it missed. Carson Schwieger also had 16 for Tulane, and Tyler Ringgold added 13 points and eight rebounds.
What this does for each side
Jackson State coach Trey Johnson earned his first win with the Tigers, on the road, after trailing by 15. Both teams are now 1-1, which makes the result look smaller than it feels.
For Tulane, a 15-point lead got undone by an error with a name and a rulebook entry. Jackson State’s offense got it back to even; the officials’ whistle did the rest.
