[BillyMac]

Varsity girls scrimmage today. I'm the odd man out sitting at the scoretable.

White player makes a steal at halfcourt and starts a breakaway to the basket. Blue defender, a very fast player, is about to catch up to White, so White purposely dribbles directly in front of Blue to prevent her from catching up to, and passing her, kind of like setting her own screen, as the ball handler. As they approach the basket White decides stop short, maybe figuring Blue will go past her, leaving her with a little "bunny" layup. The problem is, Blue doesn't go past White, but runs directly into White, knocking White to the floor before White can even start her shooting motion. Lead official charges Blue with a common foul.

Blue coach, who is a few feet away from me, says to me, "Isn't that like a screen? Doesn't the offensive player have to give the moving defender time and distance?" I only give it half a thought and reply that the player behind the play is "more responsible" for the contact, and thus the call was correct. He accepted my explanation.

On the drive home, I rethought the play. Was the call correct? Is this play a "guarding" situation, or a "screening" situation, or both?