Illegal Inbound Pass?

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by Thegr8zebra

So I was a ref in a HS game and my partner called an illegal inbound pass.
So what happened is Team B made a basket and then start to full-court press. Player A1 then picks up the ball to inbound it, he's about to pass it to A2 but realizes he's covered and trys to stop passing it. He ends up letting go of the ball but then catching it before the ball hit the ground and then attempted to pass it to A3 but my partner called it an illegal inbound. Also A1 never stepped over the line.

So it sounds like the ball escaping the grasp of the thrower is an issue here? If so, there's no rule prohibiting him from releasing it and catch it himself, even repeatedly, while OOB for the throw-in.
So even if the thrower dribbled the ball, allowing it to touch the floor, there'd be no violation. Cf. 4-42-6 NOTE.
Right?