When emphasis was put on the intentional foul rule and it was stated that you could call an intentional foul even if the player was going for the ball if the contact was "excessive", I took this to mean that the NF was now recognizing the wisdom of the NBA rule of having two different levels of "flagrant" fouls. One level required ejection, the other did not.
Since then, besides calling the standard type of intentional foul (such as grabbing a jersey in the last 10 seconds to stop the clock), I have used the intentional call when a foul deserved more consequence than a normal common foul, but not an ejection. This is the same as an NBA "flagrant level 1" foul (except no fine)
Perhaps the ref(s) that night were doing the same thing. BTW - was it the same guy who made all three calls?