This doesn't have a lot to do with the original post but it's sort of relevant.
Several years ago, boys varsity, towards the end of the season. First place in conference @ last place but nieghboring rivals. 2-man. We arrive an hour early in the snow and parking lot is packed. We figure there is a swim meet or something else going on. Wrong, the house is packed and they are all there for the basketball game. Band, 2 chearleader squads, and extra bleachers on the auxillary court that runs perpendicular to the main court. The gym is so loud we can't even hear each other's whistle. Cheers going back and forth from "conference champs" to "over rated". Nothing nasty, just good clean fun. This is what high school athletics is all about!
When we go to the table for introductions, the scorer lines up his pencils saying he is going to need all of them for this game. Great. I'm U and off the tip, A goes in for a layup and B commits a hard foul. I call the foul and go to T. As I'm standing there I look up at the clock and see 2 seconds have gone off clock. I do some quick math and figure we should be down to 1 player before the end of the quarter. From there on out, it was a great game. I think we made it through the first half with a 3 pt. game and fouls were 5-6 at the end of the half.
Towards the end of the 3rd quarter, about 10 seconds left, the visitor has a spot throw in on the backcourt endline. V takes a TO. On the ensuing throw in, they inbound the ball to a player that just subbed in during the TO. He is trapped just below the FT line. V1 (remember, he just subbed in) figures the path of least resistance is towards the goal so he shoots a layup in the wrong basket. I'm T. I look to the scorer and signal them to score 2 pts for home team. I watch the scoreboard to see the current score and make sure they get it right. In the meantime, since V just scored (albeit for the H team), H takes the ball OOB and inbounds it. Everyone starts going the other way. I'm looking at my partner not sure of what just happened because I was trying to verify the correct score. Now the guy H just inbounded to, takes a step in the wrong direction, and then realizes which basket is his, he turns around and puts up an uncontested layup in his correct basket. Horn goes off and their V's 3 pt lead is now a 1 pt. deficit. Both coaches come out at the same time, screaming. V saying "you can't count that" and H saying "you can't wipe that". I get them both away as my partner and I talk it over. We can hardly hear each other over the crowd's screams.
We discuss it and both agree that it is not a correctable error by definition. Consider a T for H being illegally OOB for inbounding the ball but based on the fact that V shot in the wrong basket, that didn't seem fair. We could not think of any way to correct it without unfairly penalizing H player for Visitor's error (and our error). My partner was the senior official and was embarrassed at his error and decided that he would just take the heat. He explained to both coaches that it was his error but he was not allowed by rule to correct it. H coach of course was happy and V coach wasn't, but he took it well. Game came down to a last second shot that was missed by H and V ended up winning by 1. I have yet to experience that atmosphere since.
Turns out we kicked the call. There was some case buried in the casebook. We should have wiped the second basket and put the time back on the clock with V correctly inbouding the ball. Seems logical now, but at the time, under those conditions, neither of us just never thought of that (I was caught up in the correctale error procedures). My partner emailed the V AD and coach and appologized for missing the call and not applying the proper correction. He stated what we should have done. Coach replied and said no problem and he would love to have us work his games in the future. Little did the coach know, the AD contacted the state association for an interpretation. The head of the state association backed up our initial ruling. When the AD got our email admitting our error, he forwarded it on to the state (who had just backed us) and said something to the affect, who is right? This required several more emails between us and the state.
A year later, I'm at a camp and I get the same coach. I asked him if he remembered me and he did right away. We laughed about it and he would crack me up every game at that camp with a comment or two. (I was ding'ed for being too friendly with the coach).
Sorry it was so long, but I've since moved and the area where I am at now is not nearly as fun. I've had a varsity girls game here with 12 people in the stands at the tip (Div 5A). There just isn't the interest in scholastic sports here that there was in Wisconsin. Still hoping to get to experience that atmosphere again.