Best finish this year, thus far

[bainsey]

JVB on Saturday night, small schools. The home team only had six players, and it was rather clear that at least two were swinging down. It was easily the most athletic JV game I've had this year, and it was played on a college court. (The home team's gym just does middle school games. They rent a community college court for high school.)

Close game all the way. Home team leads mostly, but the visitors fight hard and tie it up several times.

Tie game in the last 30 seconds. V gets an open shot that is off the mark, H chases down the rebound. I start to move from T to L (2 man), Coach H requests time out. Five seconds left. Coach asks for throw-in location(please don't ask to advance it, I'm thinking), and partner indicates the sideline spot (opposite side), about 12 feet from the backcourt endline.

After the time out, players are spread out on the big court, including H-24 and V-32 about 10 feet from the frontcourt endline, opposite side. I take the L spot at the B position on the endline. Throw-in goes from H-1 to H-2 in the backcourt, H-24 gets open and receives the long pass. He starts his drive and gathers just as V-32 tries to defend, but gets to the spot a bit late. V-32 tries to oversell by doing a flying pirouette. Tweet, block, 0.5 seconds left.

H-24 hits the first free throw, then intentionally misses perfectly with the line drive free throw that hits the rim and goes right to V-1, but time expires quickly before their time-out request.

Truth be told, had V-32 not tried to sell any contact, it's hard to say whether I'd have a foul at all. I believe his oversell backfired. Could I have gone with a flop? Maybe, but this is one case where a block is just as effective.