Disclaimer! David Snow, skip down to the first picture. All others, read away.
I have kept my griping about the ASAA official to a minimum this season. Partly because the officiating has been marginally better than last year, but mainly because I have accepted that the officials really do not know what is going on. But Tuesday night in the Wolves Den, the officiating was beyond horrible. The girls got the brunt of most of the bad calls, but it was both games that failed to show that at least two of the officials had ever seen a basketball let alone read a rulebook. When a girl is all but body slammed from behind, it is not a jump ball. When a girl is rolling over on the floor with the ball and no one else is touching her or the ball, it is not a jump ball and when a girl blast out of a group of girls with a rebound, dribbling the ball, and someone slaps her arm, it is not a jump ball. When you pick up your dribble, you get 1 pivot foot, not two, and after dribbling, when you dribble again that IS called double dribble and is something you blow your whistle for. But probably the thing that irritated me more than anything, when a girl is on a fast break and a girl goes for the ball on a shot, but hits the body instead, it is not an intentional foul. The next play down the floor where the girl grabbed the arm of the shooter (that was a no call) where she made no attempt at the ball, that WAS an intentional foul. And the last thing. The lines marking the court, the ball does need to stay inside these lines, but so does the person dribbling the ball. And it carried on into the boys games, but not as bad, mainly because I think the boys were running too fast for the officials to keep up. Surprise there was not a jump ball for that.
End of rant.
The Eagle River Boys have not faired well against Service this year. A loss to Service in the Cougar Tip off tournament followed up with a loss in their first meeting of the CIC season at Service, the Wolves were looking for some payback. In the first quarter, it actually looked like Eagle River was going to make it a game. Freshman Chaz Jenkins, Junior Shaquan Rhoades, and Seniors Chris Parker, Kelechi Madubuko and Kevin Waterman were coming up with the big shots and boards early on. Service pulled ahead, but the Wolves were right there the entire 1st quarter.
Even Thomas Jones made an impact with long balls and nice passes. But when the second quarter started, the Wolves were not playing like the same team. Not following shots, turn overs, and not running plays, allowed the Cougars to pull ahead.
The third quarter looked much like the 2nd quarter. Not following shots, not getting rebounds on either end of the court, and playing a lot of one on one ball instead of running plays. It seemed the few times the Wolves started to run some plays, they looked lost.
Then the 4th quarter started, and boom. The Wolves started to come alive. The started swarming the ball, and started hitting the boards with an urgency that should not have been there. If the Wolves would have played defense half as intense in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, they would have been a lot closer in the 4th and able to overtake Service.
As close as the Wolves could get in the 4th, they just could not overtake the Cougars. Three attempt after three attempt put up, but even if Eagle River would get to a point that they thought they were going to get it, Service would explode for a quick shot to regain a comfortable lead.
When it was all over, Service walked away with the win, but Eagle River made it a game, at least in the 1st and 4th. If they could have put together three quarters like the 1st, and turned it up a little for the 4th, they could have gotten a big win over Service.
