I had an OhioHSAA boys' H.S. jr. varsity game tonight. First game of the season for both schools.

The Visitors have been in control of the game from the very beginning, with leads as great as 15 points from the mid-point of the second quarter unitl the middle of the fourth quarter (the quarters are 6 min. in length in this league).

Home has cut the Visitor's lead down to 7 points with just under 20 sec. left in the game. I am T, Table Side, when H1 attempts one of those running jump shots from outside the three point arc at the top of the key. After H1 goes airborne, V1 takes up a position in front of H1. Now if V1 would have just stayed facing H1 everything would have been okay, but noooooo, V1 does a quick about face, bends over, and backs into H1, undercutting him. H1's shot touches nothing but net and I have an intentional personal foul against V1 for undercutting H1. I never hesitated with the intentional foul signal, but fortunately for V1, H1 was not hurt, but his foul could have easily been a flagrant foul.

H1 drains both free throws and now Team V is only leading by 2 points. Team H inbounds the ball from the sideline opposite the Table, H2 inbounds the ball to H1 who passes to H3 who is under Team H's basket with no one within 5 feet of him. You guessed it. H3's layup caps a 7 point play and we have a tie ball game with only about 15 seconds left.

Team V pushes down the court and H4 fouls V4. Team V is in the one-and-one and V4 misses the first free throw and Team H gets the rebound with just under 8 seconds left to play. Here is where the game gets weird. Team H rushes the ball into its frontcourt (Team H does not have any timeouts left.) and instead of just playing good defense, V1 fouls H1 while H1 is holding the ball near the division line. H1 makes both free throws with 5.4 seconds left in the game and Team V never even gets a good look at a 3 point field goal.

Unbelievable!

[Edited by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr. on Nov 27th, 2004 at 10:45 PM]

Wow. Never seen anything like that. It must of been fun to see.

Sounds like a heck of a way for those teams to get started Mark.

I think it'll make more sense to everyone who reads your account if you change this:

H1 drains both free throws and <i>know Team V is only leading by 5 points</i>

I think you mean this:

H1 drains both free throws and <i>now Team V is only leading by 2 points</i>

Z

Mark T.,
It takes really big ones to make that call.
You obviously have them.
mick

MTD,
Did the foul occur outside the 3-pt arc or inside the free throw semicircle?
With the shooter running in and jumping it is tough to tell from your description.
I ask because, possibly, the offended team should have been inbounding from the endline following the FTs.

PS Ditto Mick on the actual call.


[Edited by Nevadaref on Nov 27th, 2004 at 10:17 AM]

It must have been fun to see, too. ;)

Oops :D

Shouldn't that have been three free throws instead of two? Now I have to go get my book... :)

Basket was good, so 2 FTs for the intentional foul.

Duh! I read nothing but net to mean nothing but the net... is it the weekend yet?!?

Yes you are correct, but I was kind of tired when I wrote my post. I will have to go back and edit it.

MTD, Sr.

V1's feet were just outside the 3 point arc.

MTD, Sr.

big ones indeed.....certainly a HTBT sitch

What brings you to call it intentional? Does V1 make it look like he is trying to interfere with the shot and got there too late causing contact or is he positioning for a box out and it looked worse than it was? I know you used the term undercutting but just want to clarify the seriousness of what you had seen.

I see this happen and call a foul but cannot recall if I have been inclined to go with the intentional aspect unless the "butt-butting" was more than a box out position.

Am I missing some particular rule or POE for an airborne shooter or something?

By the way, this is a great example of making a tough call and being confident in your whistle, good job Mark.

Undercutting is going under an airborne player with the sole purpose of causing injury. Depending upon the severity, it can be either intentional or flagrant.

MTD, Sr.

Two comments
 

(1) Mark said: "Team H inbounds the ball from the sideline opposite the Table...." Just to clarify for those who might not be as experienced, Mark does NOT mean that the inbound spot is at the division line opposite the scorer's table (as it would be after a technical foul); the throw in is administered at the sideline closest to the spot of the foul.

(2) A foul - even a foul where the player clearly is playing the ball - can be called "intentional" where "excessive contact" is created. If a player undercuts another player, that sounds like a situation where excessive contact might be present.