A painful miss

The soft pass glancing off the receiver’s fingertips in the end zone, your team down six with no time left. The baseball nicking the top of the wall and bouncing over for a winning home run. The 8-foot putt rimming out with a chance to win on the 18th hole. The edge of the tennis ball catching the baseline to win match point. The hockey puck hitting the net pipe in overtime.

Many sports wins and losses are truly decided by mere fractions of inches, or even less than that.

Kevin Pangos’ in, then out, 3-point shot that would’ve tied Ohio State with a minute or so to go was painful, and had it stayed in could’ve easily changed the end result.

Nonetheless, Gonzaga gave the second-seeded Buckeyes all they wanted, and then some. But when Kevin doesn’t shoot well, the Zags do tend to struggle. Sometimes shots fall, sometimes they don’t … it’s what happens in sports.

Congrats, Zags, on reaching the NCAA men’s basketball tournament for a remarkable 14th consecutive year, and while the pain of losing will linger a while, especially for Rob (Sacre) and Marquise (Carter), another new hoops year beckons sooner than we think.

Here’s looking forward to it, and to a 15th straight March Madness trip.

Jeff Clausen

Spokane