After No. 22 St. John's coughed up an 18-point lead and fell 99-98 to No. 13 Baylor in a heart-breaking double overtime loss on Thursday, Red Storm coach Rick Pitino blasted the officiating crew at the Bahamas Championship. Pitino took issue in particular with what he called a "highly unethical" decision by the crew to go to the review monitor with 4.1 seconds remaining in the second overtime period right before Johnnies big man Zuby Ejiofor was set to shoot two free throws.
"I felt, at the end of the game, that was highly unethical to go to the camera on a BS makeup [call] and icing my free-throw shooter," Pitino lamented. "Highly unethical. And the referees should've never let it happen."
One official told Pitino they went to the review monitors after Baylor coach Scott Drew told the officiating crew that a St. John's player elbowed a Baylor player. The review did not result in any action.
"[The official] said [Drew] said we elbowed him," Pitino said. "Which we did not do. Clear as day. It's an unethical move."
Ejiofor missed both of his free-throw attempts with 4.1 seconds remaining in the game, and on the other end of the floor moments later, Baylor's Jeremy Roach sunk a game-winning 3-pointer as the clock expired.
The buzzer-beater was another point of contention for Pitino. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary on Roach's shot and the sequence that ended the game in real-time, but a replay of the final 4.1 seconds showed more than a one second delay between when the game clock should have started and when it actually started.
Look closely below.
"I don't know what to say," Pitino said of the potential game-clock gaffe at the end of the second overtime period. "The referees didn't do a very good job tonight."
Pitino also said he felt there were fouls committed by Baylor that were not called within the game but gave the Bears credit for their shooting and execution.
"That was about as difficult a loss as you can have," he said. "... We're all banged up and have a limited squad for tomorrow. We've got a lot of injuries right now."
St. John's has a quick turnaround with a 7 p.m. tipoff Friday vs. Virginia in the consolation game of the Bahamas Championship before Baylor faces No. 11 Tennessee in the title game at 9:30 p.m. Both games are on CBS Sports Network [Channel finder] as well as CBSSports.com and the CBS Sports App.