At the end of Gonzaga's 83-81 victory tonight, Western Kentucky coach Ken McDonald was upset that the officials didn't see him call time out with 0.9 second left, and rightfully so. Regardless, the Hilltoppers would have needed a Laettner-esque miracle to win at that point.They would have been a lot better off using that time out after Steffphon Pettigrew's beautiful tip-in tied it with 7.2 seconds left. That would have allowed WKU to calm down, set its defense, and insert its best defenders. Instead, Gonzaga wisely inbounded quickly and pushed. WKU's Orlando Mendez-Valdez played an outstanding game, scoring 25 and hitting 7-of-10 from 3, but he and the rest of the Hilltoppers played terrible defense on the last play. Mendez-Valdez was guarding Demetri Goodson on the winning play...at least until he inexplicably let Goodson drive unmolested from about 20 feet with no help defenders in sight. That has to be miscommunication, something the Hilltoppers could have prevented with a time out before Gonzaga inbounded.
Great shot by Goodson and a tremendously exciting final 10 seconds, but McDonald needs to look in the mirror before he starts berating the officials tonight.
