Mass High School Tourney problems
 

I have been lurking on this board for a long time and came across this story. What do you think would be the proper decision?

link
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/h...lbb&position=3

Double dip for Ipswich
By Dan Ventura
Friday, February 29, 2008 - Added 13h ago
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Danny Ventura has been the Herald's authority on high school sports for 15 years. He also covers the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and college sports.
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North girls basketball tournament director Tony Romano insisted no one from the MIAA issued any edicts declaring Ipswich the winner of Tuesday’s controversial 52-51 loss to Watertown.

The story making the rounds was that the MIAA admitted an error was made in the final seconds of the game and awarded Ipswich the victory but stopped short of allowing the Tigers to play in tomorrow night’s Division 3 North quarterfinal against Winthrop.

“I am the tournament director and I haven’t issued any statements,” said Romano. “The only people above me are the MIAA directors and they have not issed any statements on this. It would be inappropriate for us to review any judgments made by game officials because they are subjective.”

The craziness began when Lyndsay French hit a 3-point shot with 3.8 seconds to play, which would have given the Tigers a 54-52 lead. The officials waved the shot off, saying Ipswich coach Mandy Zegarowski called a timeout prior to the basket.

The problem began when more than three seconds elapsed between French’s basket and the timeout, leaving the Tigers with just 0.3 seconds on the clock. Despite the protests of Zegarowski, officials refused to put time back on the clock.

Amber Smith then scored off the inbounds play to give the Tigers what would have been a 53-52 win.

The game officials, however, ruled Smith’s shot was released after the buzzer, citing the tap rule, and the Red Raiders had the upset.

I guarantee you that no official made that statement in bold.

Wow, 3.5 seconds to "MENTALLY" :D process the timeout and getting air in the whistle, who was calling that game?

If coach requested a timeout prior to the release of the shot, it wouldn't count. Good call.
If no official saw time run off the clock after the whistle, then the officials cannot, by rule, add time to the clock. Good call.
With .3 seconds left, a player cannot catch and shoot, by rule. Good call.
Three for three.

Chances are the timer didn't hear the whistle due to crowd noise, and none of the officials saw any time come off the clock because they were watching action. Isn't MA using 2-whistle crews early in the postseason due to their inane postgame handshake requirement?

Do you think these officials stuck around for the post-game shake?

I can buy that. But... late in the game, shoot, anytime during the game, every time that whistle gets blown somebody (an official) needs to be looking at the clock.

I was thinking the same thing. Shoot when I first saw the title of the OP I thought somewhere in the post would be reference to the handshake monitoring.

from the story it really sounds like the refs messed up and let too much time run off the clock

Well, that just settles it, doesn't it?

Agreed, but there will be times when, for whatever reason, it doesn't happen. It's unfortunate that it happened here at the very end of the game.

I wonder if they stuck around for the teams' handshakes?

addendum............just read previous posts. I couldn't wait to post.

Let me check my magic 8 ball.




"Hell no!"

That finally got resolved. 3-person crews were assigned to all state tournament games.

they did stay for the beer and cookies the fans served after the game