Varsity girls, teams currently ranked #8 and #9 in the state AP poll in the 3A division. The girls were great and played hard the full 32 minutes - lots of hustle and great plays by both teams at both ends of the floor. The coaches focused on coaching & let us do our job. It was very close the whole way, with the home team ending up winning by five.

Nice to have one like this every once in awhile.......

From your lips to God's ears. Anything you guys did exceptionally well to contribute to the great flow of the game, or did the stars just line up right in the sky?

We discussed it in the pregame, and given the level of these teams we expected a fast, really up-tempo and somewhat physical contest. The two things we really focused on were cleaning up the physical stuff early, and keeping the flow of the game going by getting the ball back in play as quickly as possible after a foul or violation. I'd like to think that helped.....at least a little. We also worked really hard at communicating with eye contact and clear signals, and that helped us keep things moving.

In the pregame conference with the coaches I tried a little something that I picked up from one of our veteran tournament officials that I worked with recently - not sure if it had anything to do with it, but as I said in my original post, they pretty much stuck to coaching and let us do our job. Sure they had a question here or there, but we handled them quickly & kept things moving.

The girls didn't disappoint us - they ran our butts off, and once they understood what we would and wouldn't allow physically, they adjusted as well coached teams usually do. The bleachers were about 95% full and it was so loud you couldn't hear yourself think. I think everyone - players, coaches & officials - fed off of the atmosphere and tried to take their game to a higher level.

The game was actually much closer than the 5 point final margin suggests. Up until just under a minute left in the 4th, the lead was only 1 to 2 points. The visiting team missed some crucial last minute shots and had to resort to fouling to get another chance at the ball, but the home team was rock solid at the FT line - making 5 out of 6 in the last 45 seconds.

I'm going to cherish this one for a while, and next time I have a real stinker game I can at least think back and remember how good it can be when everything comes together.