Louisville wins on buzzer-beater after Stanford literally handed over the ball in ACC Tournament

For Stanford, March Madness turned into “March Maddening” rather quickly.

While eyeing a potential upset over No. 13 Louisville, Stanford played excellent defense on a game-winning 3-point attempt from Terrence Edwards Jr. in the final seconds of a tie game, only to get the rebound and throw it away.

Stanford’s Chisom Okpara corralled the miss and threw it to the wrong team, with Chucky Hepburn credited with a steal.

Okpara’s bad pass to Hepburn looked more like an assist as Hepburn caught the ball and, in one motion, rose for a game-winning jump shot.

The ill-timed turnover was the 10th — and most costly — in Stanford’s 75-73 loss, in which they blew a 15-point lead with 14:37 remaining in the second half.

“That was obviously a heartbreaking loss for us,” Stanford coach Kyle Smith said.

“We’re probably going to overtime, but obviously, they made a heck of a play there at the end. I was trying to get a timeout, but it was probably too late.”

Okpara’s Stanford teammates could only look on and throw their hands in the air after the mistake all but ended their hopes of making the NCAA Tournament.

Stanford could still make the NIT Tournament, though, due to its 20-13 record.

Louisville’s win advanced the Cardinals the semifinals of the ACC Tournament, where they will battle Clemson on Friday night.

Should the Cardinals get through their matchup against Clemson — a game in which they are 9.5-point underdogs — they would meet the winner of Duke-North Carolina in the final.

“The other thing that went through my mind when there was that little scrum is oh, my gosh, we cannot foul,” Louisville coach Pat Kelsey said of the hectic final seconds. “We foul 90,000 feet from the basket, they go down there with 0.4 seconds on the clock, make two free throws and it’s over.

“The ball kind of squirted out and landed in Chucky’s hands, and there wasn’t anybody within four feet of them. Literally, it was just like pop-a-shot, I don’t even think he jumped. It was just like a little push shot. It left his hands, and I knew it was going in. It was a little bit surreal. The guys start running all over the place.”

This memorable quarterfinal provided one of several buzzer-beaters so far during Conference Championship week, as Kentucky’s Otega Oweh also showed off his clutch skills in an SEC Tournament second-round game against Oklahoma.

Oweh drove down right baseline before making his move to the basket and laying the ball in for the 85-84 victory Thursday night.

With three days of games left leading into Selection Sunday, teams are pulling off improbable victories left and right.