(Pardon me for bogarting in on Rick Chandler’s California high school sports beat.) An important league game between Rio Americano and Bella Vista high schools in the Sacramento area ended with the worst melee ever (non-Carmelo Anthony division) and 25 technical free throws. Yes, 25 technical free throws. Rio, the home team, trailed by five points with 12 seconds left. As you can see in the (never-ending) clip below, a foul lead to a shouting match; said shouting match resulted in 11 total techs, which resulted in those 25 free throw attempts. (Please don’t watch the whole clip. Skip around.)
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A Finish Only Dick Bavetta Could Love
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↵So Rio, the team whose player tackled the other team’s rebounder, ended up with 17 free throws out of the deal. (Home cooking, anyone?) Zach Nathanson hit 16 of them, and gave Rio the win. OR SO WE THOUGHT. League officials decided there should have been only three total techs called, and Bella Vista got the retroactive win. Sixteen free throws made in vain.
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↵And yet this is all still less egregious than Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals.↵
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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