Fouled in the act of 'shooting'

[WooPigSooie]

For a change, I actually watched a small school high school playoff basketball game FROM THE STANDS. Waahooo.

Anyway, to my comment/question. At the end of the game, Team A is behind by 3 pts and is inbounding the ball in their backcourt with approximately 8 seconds left. Team B has only committed 4 team fouls in the second half. As we have all seen before, since Team B has fouls to give, they choose to start fouling as soon as the inbound pass goes in to keep Team A from having a full 8 seconds to get somebody open for the a three.

Team B applies pressure in the backcourt.

*Inbound pass 1- TWEET immediate foul. 5 team fouls.

On inbound pass two, the recipient of the pass is able to get away from the backcourt pressure slightly. Knowing that the foul is coming, the Team A's player gets off an akward, from the hip shot and shoots it about 3/4 court. Definately contact. The official blows the whistle and calls a foul in the act of shooting, giving Team A 3 possible game tying freethrows. It turned out the player missed 2 of 3 and Team B won the game despite the call.

I admire the decisiveness of the official, but, man, that took some guts to call that and put the player on the line with a chance to tie the game. Have any of you experienced a call like this? How quick would some of you be to call a foul in this exact situation? Is there a common sense component to calling a foul in the act of shooting, such as in this case? The shot was obviously not designed to be a legitimate try for goal.

Of course, the gym went crazy over the call. Alot of what I was hearing from the Team B's fans was how does the official know that the player was not trying to attempt a long pass to teammates who were assembling in the frontcourt.

I am interested in some opinions on this situation.