College Basketball

2024 college basketball bad beat: Sportsmanship costs Mount St. Mary's bettors

Updated Feb. 4, 2024 5:53 p.m. ET

Credit goes to the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers men's basketball team for exhibiting good sportsmanship Sunday.

But that ended up being bad for Mountaineers backers, who gave 7.5 points against the Siena Saints in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game.

Here's how the final seconds resulted in a bad beat for MSM bettors.

The Mountaineers comfortably led 43-31 at halftime, only to have the Saints chip away at the deficit. MSM's Joshua Reaves sank a pair of free throws to expand the lead to 68-59 with six seconds to go.

Siena's Michael Eley made a layup with less than two seconds left, making it 68-61. MSM's De'Shayne Montgomery caught a three-quarter court inbound pass and had a wide-open path to the basket …

… But declined to make an easy basket before the final horn.

The Mountaineers won 68-61 but failed to cover.

Sportsmanship 1, MSM spread bettors 0.

MSM improved to 9-13 overall (5-6 in MAA play). Siena fell to 3-19 (2-9 in MAA play).

What's the best thing that you can do if you were one of those bettors who took a bad beat? Shake it off, and hope you get the break on your next wager.

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