Touch foul to stop clock

[Vinski]

I hear what your saying Philz. I had a similar situation in a woman’s rec league game. About 20 seconds left in the game with A leading by a few points. A1 throws-in to A2 from their back court and starts cruising toward front court. Just after A2 gets the ball, B1 lightly throws an arm around her back. Didn’t impede, displace, dislodge or anything. A2 is trying to avoid her but there was a little contact. I don’t call it and A2 scurries-up to their front court. B1 looks back at me and yells “Didn’t you see that”, as if I was a blind idiot. Which, maybe I am, but that’s beside the point. Now, B1, who is all mad about the deal, runs after A2 and grabs her big time. Like a bear hug. I’m thinking, “Oh no”. So I bring out the cross bones for the intentional foul. It gets worse. She starts laying to me about how terrible I am and marches of the floor. So now I call a technical. Well team A ends up shooting 4 free throws and makes about 3 of them so B’s chances of winning are pretty much gone. Ever since then I have been paranoid about how to call those situations. I’m not sure I handled it right. I know what B1 was trying to do, but team A wants the clock to roll just as much and team B wants it to stop. If team A makes a strong effort to avoid being fouled shouldn’t that be honored if there is not a “Real foul”? My take has been that you call the fouls the same at the end as you would in the beginning of a game. However, maybe that’s not quite right when it comes to these situations. I’m curios as to what our veterans have to say.