Held Ball or Travel?

[RefBob]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

The defender can touch the ball such that the shooter thinks they can no longer easily "make" the shot but could easily shoot it anyway. The shooter chooses not to release the ball. That is causing it without preventing it.

This is exactly what happened. In my opinion, the contact by B1 on the ball kind of took A1 out of their shooting rhythm. The contact kind of made A1 panic (this was a girl's middle school game) and she failed to release. In my opinion, A1 was not prevented from releasing by a "stuff" of the ball by B1.

I agree, that this is a tough call and a tough distinction - especially in a girl's middle school game. But I'm interested in how this would be called in, for example, a boy's varsity game.