Hurley tears up the refs after late foul calls as no. 2 UConn falls to Memphis

On By Littum

UConn coach Dan Hurley blasted refs for their refs late during the two-time defending national champion and second-ranked Huskies’ 99-97 overtime loss to Memphis Monday in the first round of the Maui Invitational.

Hurley said he took particular offense to an over-the-back foul call against the UConn forward Liam McNeely with the game tied at 92 with less than a minute left in overtime.

Hurley was then assessed a technical foul for his displeasure over the foul call. PJ Carter hit four straight free throws — two for the technical and the other pair for the personal foul — to give Memphis a 96-92 lead with 40.3 seconds left.

“It was a joke. I just saw it,” Hurley said of the call, going on to say Memphis “didn’t try to block anything” on the play. “There was a player at Memphis who made a half-assed effort to rebound that basketball and Liam McNeely high-pointed that rebound, and it was a complete joke to call that at the time.”

Hurley continued his thoughts on the call on that play made by referee Pat Driscoll.

“How you can call it the way that game went is beyond me,” Hurley continued. “I’ve never seen that one umpire before. I didn’t even know he was a college umpire, and I’m familiar with the other two, so I’m not surprised.”

Steven Anderson and Scott Brown were the other two referees working the game.

The Huskies, who saw their 17-game winning streak dating back to February end, had three players foul out. Memphis attempted 40 free throws and made 29 of them.

Tyrese Hunter scored 17 of his 26 points after the break and shot 7 of 10 from 3-point range for the Tigers (5-0), who were 12-of-22 from beyond the arc as a team. PJ Haggerty had 22 points and five assists, Colby Rogers had 19 points and Dain Dainja scored 14.

Tarris Reed Jr. had 22 points and 11 rebounds off the bench for the Huskies (4-1). Alex Karaban had 19 points and six assists, and Jaylin Stewart scored 16.

Memphis led by as many as 13 with about four minutes left in regulation, but UConn fought back to tie it up. Solo ball‘s 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds left.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.