Whitmer's leading scorer played with 5 fouls in 4Q of D1 Regional Final

Gotta appreciate the effort but do they realistically think they are gonna get the teams together to replay the final 2:50? I mean I guess OHSAA could make that decision but would they scramble and have the teams play tomorrow night? Would Toledo’s arena be available? If not, would they play at a different location? What if Whitmer is already in Dayton? Lol it just seems very far fetched at this point but would be extremely interesting if OHSAA agreed to do something
 
Gotta appreciate the effort but do they realistically think they are gonna get the teams together to replay the final 2:50? I mean I guess OHSAA could make that decision but would they scramble and have the teams play tomorrow night? Would Toledo’s arena be available? If not, would they play at a different location? What if Whitmer is already in Dayton? Lol it just seems very far fetched at this point but would be extremely interesting if OHSAA agreed to do something
I don't appreciate the effort. Grow up. Be an adult and teach your players perseverance.
 
Had a feeling this would happen once GH made their initial inquiry and made it public via the media ...
The coach and AD weren't going to just let the OHSAA get away with a letter
Here's the transcript of the Cleveland.com article as it is for subscriber-only


Garfield Heights has filed injunction over handling of OHSAA boys basketball regional final vs. Toledo Whitmer, AD says

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Garfield Heights athletic director Michael Cruz said his school filed an injunction Thursday afternoon against the Ohio High School Athletic Association because it wants the final 2 minutes, 50 seconds of last weekend’s regional final replayed because of an error in how many fouls were assessed to Toledo Whitmer’s leading scorer.

Junior guard Antione West, who scored a game-high 21 points Saturday in the Panthers’ 49-47 victory, committed his final foul of the game at that 2:50 mark.

At the time, the University of Toledo scoreboard and scorers’ table registered it as his fourth foul. However, Garfield Heights contends it was his fifth and final foul, and Cruz said his school’s appeal is being made with video evidence from the game’s broadcast.

West briefly exited the regional final after his final foul. He quickly re-entered the game and hit two free throws before taking the last shot from the perimeter that led to a winning putback for Whitmer.

“We filed the injunction to have the score as it was with timeouts and everything the same, but without Antione West,” said Cruz, who pinpointed the 2:50 mark of the final foul.

Cruz said the filing was made Thursday in Franklin County, where the OHSAA’s Columbus offices are located. It comes with a significant time crunch.

Whitmer (25-2) is slated to play Centerville (19-8) on Saturday night in a state semifinal at the University of Dayton Arena. St. Ignatius (24-3) meets Delaware Hayes (27-1) in the other semifinal before Sunday’s state championship concludes the season.

Cruz, whose school saw its basketball season presumably end with a 25-2 record, cited the process of retrieving the game footage from Toledo-based network BCSN before communicating with the OHSAA and then getting approval from his school administration for why its appeal was not made until Thursday afternoon.

“We were not given the film until Monday after office hours,” said Cruz, who added he initially contacted the University of Toledo for the broadcast film before being redirected to BCSN. “Once we got the film and were able to verify, I sent an email to the OHSAA on Monday evening and followed up Tuesday morning with phone calls. They got back to me Tuesday afternoon.”

That OHSAA response Tuesday, which included a statement provided to cleveland.com, said it could not use video replays to overturn a final score and the official scorebook.

Garfield Heights coach Sonny Johnson had been relegated to the bench after receiving a technical foul in the second quarter. After the game, he declined to comment on the officiating but said this week he shouted from the bench trying to dispute West’s foul situation in the fourth quarter.

“I’m very proud and appreciative of our school district because they expedited this in a pretty significant way,” Cruz said. “At the end of the day, we are fighting for what we believe is right for our kids. We understand that human error occurs, but we feel this is a procedural mistake that cannot happen.”
 
How does that address if the ref makes an error and calls a foul on the wrong guy and gives the scorers table the wrong number? That looks like what happened in this case.
In this case the ref gave the scorer's table the number of the player fouled (11) instead of the number of the player committing the foul (2). Coincidentially, Whitmer also had a #11 on the floor at this time. If the ref had given a number that no Whitmer player on the floor was wearing, the scorer's table would have asked for clarification.
 
I don't appreciate the effort. Grow up. Be an adult and teach your players perseverance.
Yeah you’re right. Things happen. Now that I think about it, this might have actually made it worse for the kids on the team if it gave them false hope of those final minutes being replayed. I mean has anything like that ever happened?
Yeah, thank your seniors and congratulate them and your team and get ready for next season. Those seniors should have good college careers and should be proud of the season they had even tho it wasn’t the ending they wanted. Not everyone gets to play in a regional final.
 
"Garfield Heights coach Sonny Johnson had been relegated to the bench after receiving a technical foul in the second quarter. After the game, he declined to comment on the officiating but said this week he shouted from the bench trying to dispute West’s foul situation in the fourth quarter."
Apparently the coach doesn't understand that while he lost his coaching box privileges, he is permitted to rise from his seat for the following reasons....

- to stand to request a time out or to signal to his players to request a time out
- to stand and/or to leave the coaching box to confer with personnel at the scorer's table to request that a correctable error, timing, scoring, or alternating possession mistake be prevented or rectified.
- to stand within the coaching box to replace or remove an injured/disqualified player or player directed to leave the game
- to stand during a charged time out or during the intermission between quarters and extra periods
- to spontaneously react to an outstanding play by a team member or to acknowledge a replaced player.... but must
immediately return to his seat
 
The blame has to go on the sloppy official who couldn’t get the number right on the court. I hope that official is a man and apologizes for the mistake and is held accountable by the OHSAA.
 
That is still a rule but that rule has no affect on this situation as neither number has a number above 5 in it, as the players are wearing 11 and 2 both legal numbers. The referee messed up and it may have costed Garfield chance at a state championship
It impacts it to the extent that if the ref uses both hands, then he is indicating double digits. If he just uses one hand, then he is indicating a single digit number. It's the difference between a #2 and a #11.
 
I don’t understand Garfield Heights voluntarily joining an organization who has a rule that says (paraphrasing) “once the game is final, it’s over, and no video can or will be used to change the outcome,” then asking said organization not to follow their own rule, then suing when they don’t get what they want. Why are you wasting time and money like that?
 
It impacts it to the extent that if the ref uses both hands, then he is indicating double digits. If he just uses one hand, then he is indicating a single digit number. It's the difference between a #2 and a #11.
And he used 2 hands to signal 11 instead of 2 the ref made a mistake they didn’t catch it it wasn’t corrected they lost
 
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