Shot clock issue

[so cal lurker]

Red has the ball late in the shot clock. Air ball. White momentarily has possession, but immediately loses it. Red driving to the hoop in the chaos, and shot clock (which was not reset) goes off when he is about the FT line; he continues to the basket and marks a layup. Now a whistle.

Initially, after conferring together and with the table, the refs awarded the basket (I presume on the theory that the shot clock should not have gone off as it should have reset on the brief possession by white.)

White coach wants to talk to the refs. They confer again, including the table again. They wipe the basket and give the ball to red with a new shot clock.

I’m curious about how this should have been handled. Was their first solution right because the shot clock doesn’t stop play didn’t whistle? Should they have immediately whistled when the shot clock buzzed? Does it matter if the refs thought the buzzer affected the defense?

[crosscountry55]

Thinking purely in logic terms because it's been a while since I officiated shot clock, but the shot clock buzzer does not cause the ball to become dead. It's just a marker that officials use to determine if a violation occurred. By not having a whistle here, it seems pretty clear that they knew a violation did not occur. Furthermore, with an imminent offensive play in progress, they were right to hold off on stopping play to get the shot clock right. After the basket comes the whistle, they square everything up, and inbound the ball at the POI (non-designated spot throw-in to the non-scoring team). That would be my explanation to a coach.

But....you could also make an argument (as the white coach most certainly did) that red was on offense without a properly set shot clock. Can you thus claim that play should have been stopped as soon as it was realized there should have been a reset, and by fruit of the poisonous tree wipe the basket? I don't think there's rules support for this, but it's apparently what the crew decided to do.

Honestly I'm not sure what the correct outcome is here. Is there a collegiate case play to help us out?