[Rich]

I was working a second round boys game last night. We're in overtime with 1:15 left and the visiting team just scored to cut the home team's lead to two. We go to the other end of the floor, and one of the visiting team's guards tries to steal the ball and fouls the ball handler. I called the foul, we're in the bonus (1-1).

After I call the foul and am heading to the table, the player who committed the foul double backed, walked past me, shouted something out, made a gesture and continued with another gesture after I passed him. Without even giving it much thought, I called a technical foul. It was only after I called the technical and we were heading to the free throw line that I realized that he's the one who came to me from across the court late in regulation after a foul and asked me if that wasn't really my partner's call, to which I told him, "Get out of here."

The player who was fouled sank all 4 free throws and they then hit a layup on the ensuing possession. Just like that, it went from 2 to 8 and it was over. The final was an 11 point margin.

Naturally, I did a bit of second guessing of myself in the bar and then I said something to my partner that kinda cleared it up for me: First, I simply reacted to what happened -- I would've just as easily called this a technical foul in the second quarter as I did in overtime. I have to say, the visiting coach took the call about as well as can be expected -- my partner talked to him and told him that knowing me as well as he does, there's no way I'd call a technical foul unless it was warranted, in any situation.

Still, up until the technical foul, I think both teams (sincerely) thought, as did we, that we had called a great game. I don't think that changed with the technical, either, well for the most part, anyway. Even in the article in the paper today the visiting coach references two possessions in the fourth quarter and not the technical as the point where the game swung.

Why is it that I feel a bit sad, then, about how it ended?