DeLaSalle edges Mahtomedi in Section 4AAA
Here's what happened. It had been a hard-fought, competitive game, as you’d expect. And, it was 39-all when Annika Sougstad grabbed a defensive rebound and Mahtomedi called timeout with 0:15.9 on the clock. Coming out of the timeout, the Zephyrs…
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Continue ReadingHere's what happened.
It had been a hard-fought, competitive game, as you’d expect. And, it was 39-all when Annika Sougstad grabbed a defensive rebound and Mahtomedi called timeout with 0:15.9 on the clock.
Coming out of the timeout, the Zephyrs swung the ball around to Marisa Gustafson on the right wing with 7 or 8 ticks left on the clock. A DeLaSalle defender (I’m not going to say which one) rushed out to defend the wing except, well, she forgot to stop, or something. She crushed Gustafson like a free safety hitting a wide receiver over the middle. Gustafson crashed to the floor. The ball bounced off of Gustafson lying on the floor—and rolled over to an official standing not 5 feet away across the sideline. He scooped up the ball a and pointed the other way with 0:05.2 remaining.
All that remained was for DeLaSalle to rush down the court and put up a shot, which missed. But Olivia Travis was there to rebound the ball, and to put it back up and in for her only points of the night as the buzzer sounded.
Some who saw the game might say, truthfully enough, that Mahtomedi had plenty of opportunities to win the game, and didn't do it. The Zephyrs did not play well. Their ball-handling is not very good. They shot 13-of-41, according to my unofficial numbers. They were up 33-26 at the 10 minute mark and didn't close it out. They went 8 minutes without a field goal. They let DeLaSalle grab that crucial offensive board with one tick left on the clock.
All true. But Mahtomedi played hard and played great defense. DeLaSalle played hard and played great defense. DeLaSalle did nothing wrong, by the way, and I mean no disrespect to the Islanders.
But, it was perhaps the worst piece of officiating I've seen in 2,000-3,000 basketball games. I wish I hadn't seen it. I wish I had gone to a different game. But, that's what happened.