Had this over the weekend. Three man crew, high school boys varsity, both teams 7-0 in their conference. Score tied 59-59, 1:03 left in the game. Packed house. Home team A inbounds the ball to A-1 in A's backcourt after a made free throw by B. A-1 in the backcourt throws a pass, across the division line intended for A-2 in the frontcourt. B-1 in A's frontcourt deflects (not catches or controls) the ball. The ball hits A-3 who is standing in A's frontcourt in the leg and goes into the backcourt where it is recovered by A-1. I was the "C" at the division line (table side) nearest to A-3 and saw the whole play. I called a backcourt violation. Needless to say, home team coach goes ballistic!!! Not to mention the fans. Coach immediately called timeout and after I perplexed him with an explanation, the game went on. As usual in these situations, visiting team goes on to win 63-59.
In the locker room afterwards, my partners and I were discussing the play and one of partners thought it was a great call and the other (25 year veteran) felt that even though team control for A was established in the backcourt, there was no frontcourt control by A, therefore this should not have been a backcourt violation even though he admitted A-3 was the last to touch the ball in the frontcourt. He went on to say he believes this because Team Control ended when B deflected the ball. He was pretty adamant that this should not have been a backcourt violation. I have read and re-read rule 4-12 (all articles) and rule 9-9 and casebook 9.9E over and over and I am pretty confident team control did not end with B's touching and the call was right. What do you think?
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