Working a 8th grade girls game Team A is losing by 15 with 2 minutes left. The gym set up is court with brick walls 3 feet out from the court all the way around. Bleachers are in the upper deck 10 feet up. Score table is all the way up in the stands. I explain this only because it was a slight factor in this issue.
Team A gets fouled in the back court with a hand check. I call it and look up to report it. As I am reporting it the guy running the clock gives me a signal of 10 with his hands. I look up at the board and notice it showed 9 fouls (I had noticed during the last timeout also that it showed 9 fouls for both teams and mentioned to my partner next foul is double). I grab the ball run down to the other end and set up for the double bonus shots. I say to the girls "double bonus we are shooting two" and toss her the ball. She misses the first shot and every stands still waiting for the second shot. The scoretable hits the horn. I walk over that direction and look up at them confused and they say it was actually the 9th foul and it is 1and1. The clock guy has the deer in the head lights look. I turn to my partner and explain....We went off the pos. arrow which gave the ball to team B. It really didn't have a big impact on the game other then making ME look foolish.
After the game the clock guy admitted he must have screwed up and put an extra foul up on the board earlier and the clock didn't match the book. The score keeper was correct it was the 9th foul.
This frustrated me to no end the rest of the night.....How do I prevent this from happening???? Or I am I really at the mercy of Joe Blow at the table on this...