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Preface-I'm an official from the Peoria area and had no rooting interest in the game other than a fan of basketball.
I was at this game and about 40 feet from where the T's were called. #4 that got booted probably should have been T'd earlier in the game. With a ringside seat I could see him trash talking from the tip-off.
I am going to say this while biting my tongue because as we all know you hate to judge another official and I very rarely do, but these guys let the game get to the point they had these technicals. They had no control over this game out of the shoot. Thus it escalated into what it did.
You had kids whacking each other, talking trash and acting like fools with nothing happening from the officials. Kids off ball were beating the hell out of each other and nothing. Somebody would get killed on one end of the floor in a giant crash with nothing and then a touch foul at the other end. It was odd to watch. I counted 6 crashes at the basket with bodies everywhere and nothing.
In their defense there was one official who tried to clean it up, but he was not enough. The other two unfortunately laid an egg. It was hard to watch. I felt bad for them to make it to the pinnacle in a championship game and then have a train wreck.
Someone mentioned the fans. I was very near the Harrisburg fans and they were brutal. If it would have been in a high school gym several of them would have been ejected. Some of the stuff they were saying was embarrassing to say the least.
With all that said as usual the losing team still easily could have won if they had just hit their free throws. If they shoot 70% from the line they win anyway.
It wasn't a great way for the fans, players, coaches or the officials to end their season.
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