[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

I had an OhioHSAA boys' H.S. jr. varsity game tonight. First game of the season for both schools.

The Visitors have been in control of the game from the very beginning, with leads as great as 15 points from the mid-point of the second quarter unitl the middle of the fourth quarter (the quarters are 6 min. in length in this league).

Home has cut the Visitor's lead down to 7 points with just under 20 sec. left in the game. I am T, Table Side, when H1 attempts one of those running jump shots from outside the three point arc at the top of the key. After H1 goes airborne, V1 takes up a position in front of H1. Now if V1 would have just stayed facing H1 everything would have been okay, but noooooo, V1 does a quick about face, bends over, and backs into H1, undercutting him. H1's shot touches nothing but net and I have an intentional personal foul against V1 for undercutting H1. I never hesitated with the intentional foul signal, but fortunately for V1, H1 was not hurt, but his foul could have easily been a flagrant foul.

H1 drains both free throws and now Team V is only leading by 2 points. Team H inbounds the ball from the sideline opposite the Table, H2 inbounds the ball to H1 who passes to H3 who is under Team H's basket with no one within 5 feet of him. You guessed it. H3's layup caps a 7 point play and we have a tie ball game with only about 15 seconds left.

Team V pushes down the court and H4 fouls V4. Team V is in the one-and-one and V4 misses the first free throw and Team H gets the rebound with just under 8 seconds left to play. Here is where the game gets weird. Team H rushes the ball into its frontcourt (Team H does not have any timeouts left.) and instead of just playing good defense, V1 fouls H1 while H1 is holding the ball near the division line. H1 makes both free throws with 5.4 seconds left in the game and Team V never even gets a good look at a 3 point field goal.

Unbelievable!

[Edited by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr. on Nov 27th, 2004 at 10:45 PM]