I don't have my book in front of me and I'm at my office so I'm gonna shoot this question off and see how we did. Partner and I were doing a Tournament today (NFHS)and at the buzzer to end the half we had a foul with Bonus. I determined that my whistle was a fraction of a second ahead of the buzzer so we went ahead and shot the FTs and then broke for the half? Since time was expired we called it the half and took a break. Did we execute this situation correctly?

[Edited by Paul LeBoutillier on Feb 22nd, 2001 at 07:41 PM]

If I understand you correctly - (1) You blew your whistle for a foul and (2) time expired and the horn blew very shortly afterwards.

In this case you would definitely shoot the free throws. Maybe you are questioning whether or not you should have put time back on the clock? Unless you saw the clock and more than 1 second expired from when you blew your whistle until the clock stopped, you should shoot the free throws with no players along the lane and then let the teams go to their locker rooms for halftime.

Sounds like you did it right.

Personally....
 

I'd just shoot the free throws and get off the floor. Let the teams get to the locker room, and don't worry if there's point-something left on the clock. I would find it hard to believe a coach would want a half-second at the end of the first half anyway....especially at the opposite end of the floor.

I'm not totally sure, but maybe what you are thinking is if there is a technical of somekind after the horn, then you would shoot the free throws prior to the start of the 2nd half. Otherwise you shoot the free throws and then send the players to their locker room for the half time break.

The horn doesn't necessarily end the 2nd quarter. If, in the original scenario, a T occured after the horn but before the FTs from the personal foul were completed, the T would still be part of the 2nd quarter and shot right away. As soon as the last due FT has ended (and time has expired) is when the quarter ends.

Basketball fundamentals.
 

The whistle does not make the play dead, it is already dead. The whistle just tells everyone that you made a decision. So if the foul or violation happen before the buzzer, that is all that matters, not your whistle.