I called a forfeit
 

Oh, man, what a game. Church league boys, and Team A is ahead 27-26 with a few seconds left. A little context: for the last few minutes of the game, Team B and its fans have been complaining about the score, saying that they should be up by one. I have already gone to the official scorer to confirm that the score is wrong, so I'm just ignoring the crowd and shaking my head at Coach B and his players when they keep telling me the score is wrong.

So back to a few seconds left, when the ball rolls out of bounds as the clock is winding down. After my partner blows his whistle to stop the clock, it keeps running and the horn blows. He immediatley lets me know that he has 1 second left on the clock, I am near the score table and I let both teams know the game is not over and there is still time left.

Then all hell brakes loose.

Three players from Team B rip their jerseys off and throw them in the middle of the court and walk to their bench. B1 is on the bench, looking at me and running his mouth about how we cheated them. I call technical foul (trying to stay calm). Team B's players are all over the floor and Team B's coach is up in my face telling me how I'm trying to hand the game to Team A.

I've had enough, and I already have 3 technicals (1 on Team B's bench for B1 jawing, another on Team B's bench for the jerseys, and 1 on Team B's coach for his comments and being up in my face.)

Team B is clearly out of control, and despite the fact that there is one second left, and it's a one-point game, I call a forfeit in favor of Team A.

What do you think?

No way should you have called a forfeit. You penalized Team B for their actions and that's all that needs to be done. Shoot the free throws and make the throw-in to end the game. Certainly not grounds for a forfeit, imo.

In a church league boys game, I have no problem with it. Make sure you let the "commissioner" of the league exactly what was said prior to your decision.

tjones1:

I beg to differ, the actions of the Team B Head Coach and players, was a perfect example of when to forfeit the game, and I do not care what level the game is.

Three years ago, I had a boys' H.S. jr. varsity game. I charged Head Coach V with a direct technical foul in the second quarter for unsportsmanlike behavior. With just 55 seconds left in the game, Team V has the ball in its front court and is losing by four points. I am L opposite the ST and the ball is above the free throw line extended on the strong side, when V1 attempts a three-point field goal. V1's attempt is not good and during the scramble for the rebound, V2 (Team V's captain and the son the Head Coach) goes done with a knee injury just outside the free throw lane on the weak (Table) side of the court. The loose ball was going out of bounds on my endline on the weak side of the court. The ball goes out of bounds off of H1 and I stop the game for the violation as well as the injury. V-HC goes ballistic on my partner because there was no foul called against Team H when V2 went to the floor. While this is happening I am standing next to V2 and trying to get V-HC to direct his attention to V2's medical needs; at that point my partner charges V-HC with his second direct techincal foul of the game. There are 46 seconds left in the game at this time. Now V-HC goes nuclear and charges past his assistant coaches toward my partner and I at the ST screaming obscenities. V-HC's assistants grab him back toward their bench, but he is still screaming and it is the Home school's trainer who is attending to V2, no one from Team V's staff is with V2. V-HC will not leave the court and his assistants claim they cannot and will not make him leave the court. My parter (who was the R) decided that enough was enough and it was time to end the game. And that is what we did. We were not going to wait around while V's AD tried to convince V-HC to go to the locker room so that we could administer two free throws for Team A and then play out the last 46 seconds. This game was over. Team V actions should that it did not want to play basketball.

MTD, Sr.

Mark - actions such as you describe above are great examples of veterans controlling a game us newer refs need to learn from.

I had one coach "go nuclear" on me earlier this year and I should have tossed him and didn't. I learned a valuable lesson. Now, as the year winds down, and I have learned and seen a lot, I'd like to think I would have less of a problem tossing a jerk!

I support your decision.

Got a problem here. You confirm that the score was wrong and you didn't correct it? And you shook your head at the coach afterwards! What the hell! However, I agree with you calling the game after all the violations that occurred afterwards. No need in playing out the last few seconds if the technicals are against the team that's down. Thank goodness nothing happened to you with all the mess going on here. If I could add any input, you can't let things fester. You have to get an understanding / ending to a problem. Does the book match the scoreboard? If it does, the score is correct and you've done your part. The issue is now closed!

Unbelievable ending....

I read these situations differently I guess, and we might be missing some information. We all agree that Team B's coach is ejected from the game (1 direct and 2 indirect), if he didn't leave I completely agree with the forfeit. In Mark's situation, the coach refused it leave. Coach obviously failed to comply with the technical-foul penalty, therefore the referee made the right choice to forfeit.

Did you give them... the STOP SIGN? This probably would have fixed everything. ;)

Really, good job.

There's still time on the clock, you have to shoot the free throws.

Not me Tanner. It's done.
I don't have to be staying around that riot.
Nor do I have to return. :)

Only 3 T's? Sounds more like 5 to me - each team member that removed his jersey get one of his very own...........

I can see both MTD's and tjones1's points & IMHO opinion you could have gone either way. The situations are different (though once you tossed B's coach they might not have been) & from a purely technical standpoint you probably should have at least gone through the procedure, but given the volatile situation & there only being 1 second on the clock just ending it as you did may have prevented further problems.

Bottom line - you & partner were there and had to make the immediate decision based on what you perceived the situation to be. We all get to sit back & analyze it after the fact.........

Sorry, that was a typo. I confirmed with the scorekeeper that the score was correct.

I'm still torn as to if I did the right thing - maybe just because I feel bad for the kids on Team B that really didn't do anything wrong, but I know that shouldn't influence my decision.

In my opinion, the game was completely out of hand, and neither Team B's coach nor his players were listening to anything we were saying or doing. They were, in the truest sense of the phrase, out of control and I didn't feel like there was anything I could do to reel them in.

Ok, with that information, I have no problem with calling forfeit. In that sense, they didn't comply with the penalty of the technical foul(s), thus the forfeit. Sounds good to me.

Yabut, what if they missed all their free throws, couldn't inbound the call and got a 5 second violation, and then hit a last second shot? :D :p