Mike Ridaught
On Dec. 9, the Trenton boys basketball team hosted Bronson in a Class 1A-District 7 game.
However, the game was called with 9.8 seconds to play in the game.
While the teams did play again last Thursday, ending with a 70-68 Bronson win, it appears Trenton and Bronson will not play the remainder of the first game.
At the time, it was believed that Trenton was awarded the win. However, the Florida High School Athletic Association has recently made an official ruling on the game, which is ‘suspended.’
In the first game, Trenton led by two, 51-49, when Bronson’s Aneury Montero fouled out of the game.
On the ensuing play, all of Trenton’s players lined up out of bounds at the scorer’s table (sideline) where the ball was to be inbounded by Trenton.
This is an allowable formation after a made basketball on the baseline, but not on the sideline.
According to Bronson coach Billy McCall, “two separate rules were violated by Trenton on this play.”
“The officials essentially had it in their ‘judgment’ of which call they wanted to make according to both rules being violated,” he said.
According to the FHSAA rule book (Rule 9 Section 2 Article 11) – Throw in Provisions:
“No teammate of the thrower shall be out of bounds after a designated-spot-throw-in-begins.”
Penalty: “The ball becomes dead when the violation or technical foul occurs. Following a violation, the ball is awarded to the opponents for a throw-in at the original throw-in spot.”
According to Rule 9 Section 3 Article 3 – Out of Bounds:
“A penalty shall not leave the court for an unauthorized reason.”
Penalty: “The ball is dead when the violation occurs and is awarded to the opponents of a throw-in from the designated out-of-bounds spot nearest the violation.”
McCall said that according to the rules book, “Bronson should have been awarded the ball for a throw-in to either tie or win the game with 9.8 seconds remaining.”
McCall added that the game was “falsely ended prematurely by the officiating crew” and the FHSAA sent out the following statement:
“At this time, the game is not considered completed. It is a suspended contest. If both schools agree, the game can be completed at point of interruption.”
Neither school was able to agree so the game is considered “suspended” as if it never had been played.
It was one of the more bizarre endings to a game, that never actually did end. But we now have a formal account and rule for what happened last month.
One can speculate whether or not the game would have been won by Trenton or Bronson, but it’s certainly possible the two teams could meet again, the rubber match, if you will, in the district tournament at Williston in a couple of weeks.
This is the last week of the regular season for girls basketball. District tournaments begin next week.
The boys have two more weeks remaining in the regular season.
The boys basketball district tournaments begin the second week of February.
A big month of hoops is coming up.