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On South Jefferson's next possession, A. J. Chartrand, who scored 27 points for the Spartans (9-3 overall, 9-2 league), saw his driving layup spin out of the basket and go out of bounds with three seconds to play.
After a timeout, all Thousand Islands had to do was inbounds the ball successfully, and the game was likely over. But as the ball was thrown toward the mid-court area, the buzzer prematurely sounded with the clock reading 1.5 seconds.
The officials, veterans Mike Branski and Phil Goings, immediately blew their whistles to stop play and went to the scorer's table to confer. They determined that since it was an inadvertent whistle, a jump ball was required, which gave possession to South Jefferson.
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Thousand Islands coach Scott LaLonde had three reasonable arguments as to why the referees' decision was the wrong ruling.
One, LaLonde said his player, Hanrahan, had possession of the ball when the buzzer and whistle sounded, which should have given the possession to the Vikings.
Second, LaLonde wondered why the clock was reset to three seconds. And third, he thought the ball should have been taken out under the basket where it was originally inbounded.
The officials said the inadvertent whistle was the only determining factor, and that LaLonde's protests were superseded by the rule book.
"I disagree with their interpretation," LaLonde said. "We had the ball on the inbounds pass, so why didn't we have it after the whistle blew?''
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Not sure if this would be a situation for 4-36-2b or 2c. If the clock started correctly on a deflection, then the throw-in was over, even though the horn sounded prematurely.
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