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I worked a girls district semifinal lastnight in a new gym that was equipped with remote control scoreboards. Because they work on remote control, the clock is programmed to run time back on the clock. If the timer stops the clock on the whistle, the clock might run for two or more seconds but will re-wind back to what the clock was on when the timer hit the switch. An example would be 18 secs whistle, 17 secs, 16 secs, rewind to 18 secs. There is nothing the timer can do about this. I know this sounds funny but it happens.
In closing seconds of the game last night the black team is down by 2 inside of 10 seconds and trying to get a shot off. Shot goes up, and both teams go for rebound. Ball goes to the floor when the white team picks it up while layin on the baseline. I blow the whistle and the horn goes off. I look at my partner to make sure the clock was okay. He said the clock was inside 1 second when the whistle sounded. We left the floor with the white team winning by two. A knock on our door came from an official there watching the game and said the coaches and tournament director wanted us on the floor that .2secs remained on the clock. I said that horn went off and the game was over. The tournament director came to the door and said that even though the horn sounded because of the way the scoreboard was programmed the clock rewound to .2secs. My partner and I were not sure as to we should go back to the floor. We did go back and finish the game after explaining the situation to both coaches. Luckily the white team coach who was winning (and eventually won)was willing to go along with our decision. After the game my partner and I both agreed that we were wrong in going back out, but were we did not know what to do about the clock situation. I have a couple questions for all of you.
1) Were we wrong in going back out? I know that most of you will say yes, but consider the goofy scoreboard that was involved. I called our state rules interpreter and he said he thought we were wrong but agreed that the board kind of made it an unusual situation.
2) Has anyone ever dealt with one of these types of boards before? Has anyone ever had a similar experience and how did you handle it?
Our rules interpreter is going to get back with me after he does some research on these types of boards. I will keep you posted on what he tells me.
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