Game Log 12/5/2008: Sloppy doubleheader

Did a JV/Varsity girls doubleheader tonight with one of the absolute best officials in our association and a guy who's a little green. (It's kinda cool that I'm not the green one on the crew anymore.) Both games were sloppily played, but we were pretty spot on.

The JV game was awful--a blowout of immense proportions. The losing team didn't score in the second half, didn't score in double digits for the game, and wound up losing by 60. Not much to do in this one except try to stay in shape from the many, many turnovers. Can't remember a call in this one. Aggressive girls for the winning team went after the ball by mistake once in the fourth quarter, and when the ball went out of bounds, the coach said, quite forcefully, "Girls, get back! They got the ball, get back!" I thanked him for that.

The Varsity game was considerably closer. I won't say it was good, but it required some concentration because it was close late. My partner had a player control foul against White that was terribly unpopular with about 3 minutes left in a close game. A trip or two down the floor later, I was in the coach's hip pocket as C. A player started a drive. A defender for Blue stepped in right at the free throw line. Secondary defender...that's mine all the way. Collision. Player control.

Coach came absolutely unglued.

I said two things to him: "She was there, coach," and "That's enough, coach." But he was so pissed off from partner's call that he was quite demonstrative. No T necessary, though, for three reasons: 1. I was able to run down the floor on the rotation to get away from him. 2. It was the first I'd heard from him all night. 3. It was a tie game with two minutes left.

Experienced partner said that he was ready to T the coach up from behind me. I'm glad he didn't. He also said that I comported myself very well. I find it easy to comport myself very well when I'm 100% sure my call is right. So I'm pleased with how that went down.

The other coach became a little bit annoyed with me later in the game. His team slipped behind, and was in a situation where a strategic foul made sense. My instinct is to call one quick so it doesn't grow up into an intentional two-shots-and-the-ball foul. I called the first (light) contact. Coach called me over, and quite politely said this: "Could you not anticipate the foul? We're not planning to foul yet."

Fair enough.

Then, with 6 seconds left in a 4-point game, the same team did want to foul. The kid for the winning team caught the ball, and her defender put both forearms on her and pushed forward. It wasn't too hard, but it was enough to knock the kid back a good step. No effort to play the ball.

Intentional foul.

Yeah, I guess I could have called it a common foul, but the rulebook is on my side on this one. It's not the kind of thing where it was going to result in a fight or anything (though experienced partner said he thought the offensive player was a little upset). But if it was borderline, I'll go with the book rather than with "this is the way people usually call it."

Losing coach wasn't happy. After I explained it, all he said was "You haven't handled the end of the game well." I respectfully disagree. But the guy wasn't too bad.

So it's not a bad start.

THINGS I DID WELL: We did fashion police crap before both games, I comported myself well under pressure, made the right, gutsy calls late.

THINGS TO WORK ON: My legs felt like they were in molasses. I blew some weird switches, and went to bizarre places on free throws. I'll look forward to the day when three-man is my norm again.

NEXT UP: Monday. Another girls' JV/Varsity doubleheader.