Ugly Timeout Situation - Discussed Before

[CDurham]

Team Black is moving the ball from backcourt to frontcourt and gets trapped at the division line. I am in the Trail opposite table and my partner is in the Lead tableside and in front of Black's bench. He here's a timeout request and double checks to make sure it is coming from Black and that they have player control of the ball. In both cases they do.

Before he hits hit whistle, the ball is stolen by White and then my partner hits his whistle with the timeout as White has the ball. I go to him and ask if he double checked to make sure Black was in control of the ball when he heard the request (as I didn't hear it so I wasn't any help). He said yesso we gave the ball to Black. Needless to say the Coach for White wasn't happy, which whats new?, and he continued his argument even after the game at half court

Any thoughts???