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I know the official who made this call. We belong to same local association here. I have seen him work enough to know that he would have made that call whether it happened as it did here in the last second of the game or the first second of the game, which is really all you can ask of an official. Isn't consistency what most "fans" scream for? They want it called the "same at both ends" and they want the 4th quarter called the same way as the first.
Ironically, that is exactly what seems to be the issue here. There is a message board devoted to discussion of high school sports here in southwest Ohio. You can imagine the type of discussion going on over there on this matter. It seems that the consensus there is that there was contact on the arm, it may or may not have altered the shot, but by rule it was a foul. Their issue is however, that it should not have been called with less than a second remaining in a tied game and should not have decided the game. Where in the rule book does it define the list of exceptions to the rules when the game is on the line in the last minute? A foul is a foul! How moronic!
Also, someone mentioned earlier the fact that the newspaper published the official's name. Absolutely nothing was accomplished by doing this, and in my opinion that is the epitome of irresponsible journalism. I realize it's not likely to happen, but I would like nothing more than to see the OHSAA pull this paper's credentials for the remainder of the tournament!
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