[Rich]

I know I've probably ragged on girls' games in the past. Many of them are held-ball and travel contests and I've considered cutting back and only working boys games in the future.

But last night I had a great game, 2-person. Visitors ranked #3 in the state (Division 2 of 5). Home team under .500 in the conference. Yes, we had a few held balls, but all of them were the scramble around on the floor variety. We had a total of 2 traveling violations the entire night. One of them was a pretty good get by me, if I say so myself -- long pass in transition and the player caught it in mid-run and then (very quickly) lifted her pivot foot (actually both feet) before the ball left her hand on a dribble. I was probably 30 feet away, closing quickly from behind. Partner had the other travel.

Anyway, the home team was incredibly scrappy all night and just "went after it." They led by 7 at one point in the first half, but when the best player for the home team (a freshman, BTW) got into foul trouble, the visitors chipped into the lead. They took the lead with about 2 minutes left and it was still a 1-possession game when a V player missed a free throw with 10 seconds left. V player gets the offensive rebound (which is significant, because the home team outrebounded the visitors almost all night long) and puts it back in to push it to 5 and that's how it ended.

2 officiating moments (before I'm accused of posting something not about officiating): We had a girl get the basketball while sitting on the ground. She started a dribble from her butt and managed to get up and start a break (all very quickly). The visiting coach started yelling, "she can't start a dribble from the ground." Huh? He kept saying it until I finally (in front of him) said, "of course she can -- it's the only way she can legally get up."

Also, I hung my partner out to dry in a funny way with about a minute left. I was the T, tableside. Ball got knocked loose in the corner and ping-ponged right off the leg of the home team player (whose bench I was right in front of). I made the call and before the bench could protest, I had already started the run portion of the bump and run and was opposite the table in the new frontcourt before the home team could protest vehemently. My partner had to come over to administer the throw-in on the sideline and he got all the grief. But they were calling it with their hearts -- I had a great look at what actually happened. And my partner told the coach that -- that I was standing right there and had a great look at it. Then he put it in play and got out of there, too.