JMU Loses at the Buzzer and Technology Screws Me

The Dukes’ six game winning steak came to an abrupt halt today with a 64-63 loss to Georgia State. The loss was bad enough on its own . Coming at the hands of the lowly Georgia State Panthers on a buzzer beater made it worse. The fact that a stupid technology screw up caused temporarily fooled me into thinking JMU won made it cruel beyond words.

I tuned in for the online broadcast and was not encouraged by the Dukes’ play in the first half. About the only thing more disappointing than JMU’s play was the quality of the Georgia State produced broadcast. It was awful. Long periods of silence interrupted by some voice from above announcing Georgia State baskets. I’m not even sure if it was a commentator, some low budget computer voice simulation, or a delayed feed from the in-house PA. Whatever it was, it was driving me crazy and so was the play on the court. In my typical nervous fashion I decided to mix it up and run some errands while following the game online via the ESPN Scorecenter App for my Droid. I’m never doing that again. Never again.

The play by play on the app made it clear the Dukes were not playing well. Just as I was about to give up chalk up a JMU loss, things started to turn around. Under a minute left and JMU ties it up. Then inexplicably the next update says the Dukes got the ball back. What? How? Whatever. Next thing I know Georgia State fouls and Devon Moore hits one free throw. JMU is up 63-62 with just seconds left! I’m ecstatic at this point. Devon Moore shoots like 80-something percent from the line. It’s in the bag. One more update comes in, saying Georgia State ball with 3 seconds. OK. No clue what happened with the second free throw, but still feeling good. Then it happens, no update, no nothing. Just the words “Final” appearing under James Madison 63 – 62 Georgia State. Yeah! Huge win to avoid the crushing upset. I popped over to Twitter to see if I could find any details and NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I see the tweet from JMU Sports that Georgia State put one in at the buzzer to win. Damn you ESPN Scorecenter App! Damn you! A minute or two later the final score was changed on the planet’s worst app.

Anyway, this was a bad loss  since Georgia State is one of the bottom feeders of the CAA. I’m not sure if it’s a terrible loss or if I’m just particularly bitter since I thought JMU won thanks to the app who’s name shall no longer be mentioned. Denzel had another strong game leading all players with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Julius Wells was the only other Duke in double figures, with 14.  JMU pulled down a season high 43 rebounds, but shot the ball terribly as a team, hitting 31% from the field. The Dukes have won some ugly games this season largely due to clutch free throw shooting down the stretch. Today was a different story, with the Dukes missing 5 free throws in the final 3 minutes. It’s only one game, but it was a game JMU really should have won.