The Atlantic Coast Conference admitted that a timing error had been made in the closing seconds of No. 10 Duke’s 68-66 win over 19th-ranked Clemson on Thursday.
The league reviewed the game film and discussed the clock controversy with the officials, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and Clemson coach Oliver Purnell.
The confusion started shortly after Clemson’s Vernon Hamilton made a layup to pull the Tigers to 66-63 with 5 seconds left.
Josh McRoberts’ inbounds pass for Greg Paulus went right to Hamilton just outside the three-point arc. Hamilton hit the shot to tie it with 1.8 seconds left, which seemed to have the game headed for overtime. Officials stopped play to review the time left and restored the clock to 4.4 seconds. The clock stopped on Hamilton’s layup but did not restart on the steal until the ball was almost in the basket–more than a second later.
