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Big game this weekend. We are meeting the only other undefeated team in our division, and it is our only meeting in the regular season. We are down 3 and stupidly fail to foul until 8 seconds left. Player makes both FTs, we go length of court with 2 quick passes and take a three with a couple of seconds left, whistle is blown for foul on shooter. Shooting 3 FTs with .8 seconds left.
We make one of first two FTs to cut lead to 4. We call TO to organize ourselves, and I verify with both refs that we can catch and shoot. We have to hope for a made FT and a steal in 3 point area and instant shot. Not likely, but it is our only decent plan at this point.
We miss the last FT. On the last shot, the ball bounces, coach of other team told his players not to try for rebound, it goes outside 3 point line where we catch and shoot and get run into by a defender. But time expires before ball is touched by any player. Evidently, coach of B was talking to the timer and told his players not to touch the ball because it would be live off the rim and clock would start?!
When we protested, timer says "ball is live off the rim." True statement, but it does not follow that the clock starts on live ball - only when touched by a player. Timer and both refs disagree with me. Then I show them the rule, they agree, but ref says we couldn't catch and shoot with .8 on the clock, because it can only be a "tip, tap, or try." Never mind that she used langauge that includes try, which is a throw, which includes catching, etc. She also has this case wrong, because the tip or tap (ot try) provision is only with .3 seconds or less. And it went against what both refs agreed the ruling would be when we discussed it during the timeout. To top it off, timer says doesn't matter, there's no such thing as a 4 point play - which there isn't if you blow the whistle before my 3 point shooter gets fouled!
Would (and should) we have won? No, we blew it well before the .8 second mark. So I am not here to blame our loss on lack of rules knowledge - it was most clearly a poor coaching job for about 24 minutes that really cost us dearly. however. . .
Know your timing rules in end of game situations, and make sure your timers know them, especially when you have a TO during which to talk it over and get it right. If a team does what it needs to in those closing seconds, it deserves to have the timing handled correctly.
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