Is this a correctable situation? Team A is ahead of Team B by 3 points, player A1 is driving the lane and is called for an offensive charge against player B1. The score keeper informs the coach of Team A that A1 has fouled out but does not inform the officials. The official hands the ball to player B2 and he inbounds to player B1 who proceeds to make a 3 point shot tying the game. At the same time Team A is trying to sub for player A1. The officials see that Team A only has 4 players on the court and approach the score table. They find out that player A1 had fouled out previously. The head official takes the 3 point shot away from Team B. Team B gets to inbound the ball again but don't score and never recover and lose the game. Is this a correctable error?

No, Official can only erase a point on an unmerited free throw. The 3 point shot should not have been taken away if the officials never saw any player leave the court. However, the officials obviously made some errors. If the other official had his hand up for play stopage and the clock wasn't running, then the error was letting the inbound of the ball. In this case i wouldn't let the 3 points stand. Sense the coach has 30sec to sub. its not fair to let the other team inbound the ball.

[This message has been edited by Bart Tyson (edited March 17, 2000).]

There are a few more facts that need to be known in this situation before I could give an accurate answer, but why is coach of A trying to sub if B is dribbling downcourt for a shot. I guess my answer is no, this is not a correctable error situation. It sounds like the scorekeeper did not do their job and notify an official of the players 5th foul. Therefore, the official could not have notified the coach of A that his player had fouled out. The only way that A1 should have been leaving the game is if he was informed by an official of his 5th foul or an incoming sub was replacing him. Since an official did not inform him and no official beckoned in a sub (apparently) then A1 should not have been trying to leave the floor while B had a live ball in bounds. I would let the 3-point shot stand and now since we have a dead ball while the official confers with the scoretable, we would have the chance to inform the player and coach of A of the disqualification.

Did this really happen??? I have never seen a coach send a sub in after a 5th foul until a minimum of 27 seconds had gone by. And certainly not unitl he/she is notified by an official and given said official the requisite 15 second silent glare.

The officials should not have inbounded with only four players on the floor, and should have seen A1 leave the court. Without seeing the sequence I don't know for sure, but the way it is described, I let the trey stand.