Mine was my toughest game, from a game management point of view. League rivals, it was a fairly lopsided game, although it got within ten in the fourth period, but the players, and coaches, were constantly challenging us. An early double foul (a rare call from me) should have given us a clue about the rest of the game. Two opponents chest bump each other during a throwin situation, warned to stop, next throwin, the same thing, so double foul. Third period, intentional hard foul (excessive contact, kid ended up in the bleachers) (Coach: "But he was going for the ball"). Technical foul on coach for yelling at me ("bullshit"), technical foul on player for hanging on rim (showboating) after a breakaway dunk (As the trail, I kept saying to myself, let go, let go, let go, and he didn't). Players glaring at each other after fouls, especially when untangling after they go down to the floor. We spend the entire night telling kids, from both teams, to just "walk away" from such situations. Every whistle for a foul, or held ball, required us to step in between bodies quickly to keep things from escalating. We were calling touch fouls the entire second half. It came down to the last seconds when the home captain (up by fifteen) was thinking about taking an unopposed three pointer as players from both teams allowed the clock to wind down (he looked at the clock, looked at the three point line, and loaded up to shoot until I told him, "Don't you dare", he complied).
https://forum.officiating.com/basket...ml#post1016242
As my partner and I sat in the locker room after the game, both physically, and mentally, exhausted, we both agreed that we needed that game, that both of us had had a uneventful, easy season to that point. This game really tested our game management skills and, for the most part, we were successful. No ejections, no fights, we did our job that night, we had to be on task 100% of the time that night, it was not a game where we could just get in, get out, and get paid. To paraphrase John Houseman in those classic Smith Barney television commercials: That night, we made our game fees the old-fashioned way, we earned them. My ride home that night was quite satisfying, no double guessing, we gave our best.