Correctable error question
 

This happened to me Friday afternoon.

9th grade girls game, 2-whistle mechanics. A1 is fouled on a layup attempt. Shot does not go in. I make the foul call as the lead. I report the foul, take my position as the new trail. My partner mistakenly thinks the shot went it, says "one shot" to A1. A1 misses the shot, B grabs the rebound and starts a fast-break down the court.

All the while, I'm having a brain freeze. About 3 seconds later, B is about to attempt a layup, when suddenly the "OH #$@*, there should've been two shots" alarm goes off in my head. I pause for a second or two, B attempts the layup and misses, A rebounds, and I blow my whistle, stop play, and return A1 to the line to shoot her second free throw.

I know it got it right on the "correctable error" and within the proper time frame. But I'm not sure if I should've stopped play when I did.

So, when should I have actually stopped play?
a) as soon as I realized that we didn't award the second FT attempt? (Prior to B's layup attempt).
b) as soon as A secured possession after B's missed layup? (what I actually did)
c) wait for the next dead ball (successful try by either A or B, or violation or foul by either team)?
d) other (please specify)

I'd treat it like an injury situation. Stop it as soon as you can, but don't take away an obvious scoring attempt / play.

Yes, the time frame is still valid to correct this error.

Stop the game as soon as you have knowledge. So, (A) is the answer.

Whenever I have this situation, which is rare to never, my philosophy is that I want to be sure that I get the call right if I'm going to kill the play, so I do take an extra heartbeat or two before stopping the game - so long as the CE time frame isn't threatened - just to be sure.

If in that extra heartbeat, B is in the habitual shooting motion, then I kill it as soon as the ball goes in, or the rebound is secured - otherwise I kill it right after the heartbeat.

I would have probably went with B if it were in real time (just because I would have probably still been trying to figure things out) but A is probably more correct.

5-8 (Time-Out, Stopping Play) does not have a provision for the official to stop the clock to correct an error unprompted by a scorer's signal. 5-8-4 allows us to stop the clock to respond to the scorer's signal with no restriction as to who is in possession.

I don't see why we couldn't use 5-8-4 to stop the clock at any point if we realized the error without being prompted.

Now the question is what do you do after that second free throw. I heard of a play that was similar. Regardless of whether A1 makes or misses 2nd free throw, team A would get the ball back because team B already had that possession on missed layup. That is how someone explained it to me. Is this correct?

Yes. If possession has changed before the error is corrected you got with the point of interruption. If possession has not changed and the correction is awarding a merited free throw you resume with the free throw.

Yes, they would get the ball back at the spot nearest where the ball was located at the time of the official's whistle.

And in this case, A1 shoots the merited free throw with nobody in the lane.

Ok, so I got part of it right (stopping play when I did), but screwed up the second part. We let A1 shoot her second FT, and then B got possession (I can't remember if the second FT was made or not).

FWIW, nobody complained one way or the other. But now I'll file that one away in my "Mistakes I'll only make once" section of my brain.

FWIW, nobody complained one way or the other. But now I'll file that one away in my "Mistakes I'll only make once" section of my brain.[/QUOTE]


I have about 200 of those things filed, I'm starting to run out of room!:D

A refresher for me
 

If B would have made their shot, A inbounds and comes up court and then you kill it, B gets the points and you play the missed ft with lane unoccupied. Then A gets a throw in following??

No. After B makes the basket you are in the first dead ball after the clock started following the error. The instant that the ball is at A's disposal for the ensuing throw-in it is live again and it is too late to correct the error.

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