Should I have done anything different?
Girls V, 2 man mechanics. We use NCAA rules with a few modifications. I'm R working trail in the first half. Home player A1 takes a 3 point shot from near the gray area. I go up with 3 fingers and watch for contact on the shooter. The ball comes down looking as though it didn't hit anything. A second or two later, the home coach is yelling that the ball went in. I replay the shot in my head and realize that she's probably right. I blow my whistle and go and look at the basket---sure enough there's a hole in the back left where the ball could have gone through. At this point, I'm 95% sure that the ball went in. I ask my partner, and he (being a good official) didn't see anything from his spot, since he was watching rebounders. I go to the table and ask timers (we have a shot clock in NY girls) and scorer---all agree that the ball went in. I count the basket.
Needless to say, visitor coach isn't happy. He doesn't think that the table should be involved in any way with this decision. I explain to him that they are part of the officiating team, etc. He talks to my partner, but I intervene saying that this was my call and my decision and that we're moving on. He asks that the scorer write in the book that he's playing the game under protest. I inform him that there is no such thing as a protest in basketball and get the game going again. Visiting coach doesn't say anything to us about this (or anything else---he's one of the most reasonable coaches in my area) for the rest of the 2nd quarter
My partner tells me that the visiting captain said that the ball had gone in and he asked her to tell her coach.
After the half, we come out and I see the visiting coach talking to the table about the play. I have to drop the key to the locker room off at the table anyway, so I figure this is a good time to explain what my reasoning was to him. (NY is emphasizing communication with coaches and since this particular coach is a very reasonable guy, so I knew that I wasn't inviting a disaster here.) I go over the same points, admit that I had made an initial mistake, but said that I was 100% sure that the ball had gone in and that we had gotten the call right, which was the important thing. He still insisted that the table should not have been involved, but that the call should have been made on the floor by the two officials. We didn't get to any sort of agreement, so after a minute or so I went across the floor to my spot. No trouble in the 2nd half at all.
Should I have done anything different?
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