‘Difficult call’: Tigers’ Baker-Mazara tossed vs

Mar 22, 2024, 05:25 PM ET SPOKANE, Wash.– Auburn’s Chad Baker-Mazara was ejected for a flagrant nasty 2 less than four minutes into the fourth-seeded Tigers’ upset loss to No. 13 seed Yale on Friday in the first round of the NCAA guys’s tournament.After a prolonged evaluation, officials announced the foul versus Baker-Mazara and sent him to the locker room. A couple of minutes later, Baker-Mazara published on social media, “I believe in my kids they got em!! “Replays showed that Baker-Mazara appeared to toss an elbow toward Yale’s August Mahoney as the set ran downcourt. Mahoney immediately attempted to get the attention of authorities, and when play stopped with 16:59 left in the first half, authorities went to the replay display.”Clearly, the choice to ostentatious 2 Chad Baker,

that’s a pretty difficult call,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said.”He had gotten hit about five seconds previously, got tangled up, got a little bit of an elbow. They let it go– maybe no one saw it– and about five seconds later, Chad hit him. It was improper, clearly a flagrant 1. The fact that it was elevated to a flagrant 2 was a choice that the official needed to make, however it’s obviously a significant impact on the outcome.Editor’s Picks 1 Related”Chad is one of our finest players. He’s one of our absolute best playmakers and was a big part of

our strategy and so to lose him which situation was really, really disruptive to our team on both ends of the floor. “Baker-Mazara averages 10.3 points.Pearl said he received a short description from an authorities after the call was made. “The truth that it was major possibly or intentional. Chad lined him up and retaliated, so by the book– or if that’s the phrasing they’ll use as an ostentatious 2, however it’s had a huge effect on

the game,” Pearl stated.” I believe it was ostentatious 1. It was deliberate, it was extreme– how many flagrant 2s are there in games versus ostentatious 1sts? That ‘d be a good discussion. Let’s just state of all the flagrants, in my experience, 90%maybe 1s.”Yale, the Ivy League champ, trailed Auburn 41-34 at the half. The Bulldogs rallied in the second half to tie the game at 70-all with 2:38 remaining in regulation.Trailing 72-70, Yale took the lead on a 3 by guard John Poulakidas, who scored a career-high 28 points in the win.Auburn had a number of possibilities down the stretch to connect and even win the game, including a missed 3-pointer by K.D. Johnson at the buzzer.Yale will face San Diego State in the 2nd round Sunday.Information from ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura and The Associated Press was utilized in this report.