The Loop

Georgia fan costs team game by throwing stuffed animal on the court. You can't make it up

February 21, 2019

Georgia fans are a wild bunch, particularly Georgia football fans. These are the type of people who wake up the neighborhood to let everyone know the Dawgs won the SEC Championship, or strap a flatscreen on the back of a hummer to let everyone know the Dawgs won the SEC Championship. Little did we know that the Bulldogs' basketball fans are just as rabid.

On Wednesday night, the UGA men's basketball team found themselves in a tight one late against SEC foe Mississippi State. With the game tied at 67-67 and just 0.5 seconds left on the clock, Mississippi State senior guard Quinndary Weatherspoon was at the free throw line looking to give his Bulldogs the lead. Weatherspoon, an 82-percent free-throw shooter, missed his first, causing the home UGA crowd to erupt as this gave them a chance to still win the game. That was until everyone noticed a stuffed animal had been thrown on the court while Weatherspoon was shooting. File this under things you simply cannot make up:

Georgia was hit with a technical foul because of the fan's action, and Weatherspoon went on to make his free throw, giving Mississippi State a 68-67 win. There's no way of knowing whether or not Weatherspoon would have made his original second free throw, but it still hurts to know a fan gave him another crack. What hurts even more is that the stuffed animal really had no effect on Weatherspoon if we're being honest, but by rule it's the right call to hit them with a tech. For Georgia, the loss doesn't make much of a difference in their season as they are 10-16, but it was a huge, must-have win for Mississippi State, a team that could not afford a bad loss on its NCAA Tournament resume. Could be talking about that stuffed animal for a long time if the Bulldogs make a deep tourney run in March.