Inadvertent whistle

[Bart Tyson]

Last year this happened in a NCAAW game. I was L, we had a rebound right in front of me. I thought I heard a faint whistle. Players didn't stop and play resumed, action is fast and the players are fast breaking to the other end. Beep, the new L has a foul at at his end of the court. He went to report and is told the clock stopped because they heard a whistle. Keep in mind it is loud, close game with 2 min. left in the game. We got together and sure enough the C said she did start to blow the whistle because she thought there was going to be a foul and the foul didn't happen and players didn't stop so she let it go. Now, what do we do?

[Dave Brost]

Not sure if this is the correct procedure, but this is I would have done. If in the judgement of the officials as a group, the inadvertant whistle did not stop any players from playing, I would allow the action that happened after that to count, get a judgement on what amount of time should have run off the clock, remove that time, and play on from there.
What probably should have been done was, the official with the inadvertant whistle should have blown the whistle again, suck it up to admit the wrong-doing, and give the ball to the team in possession at the time.