Many are scratching their heads, wondering if the call by the referees at the end of regulation time of the A Division Girls’ Basketball Championship final between Hwa Chong Institution and Raffles Institution (RI) was on the mark.
In the dying seconds of the final, RI’s Hannah Ng (#4) intercepted a pass to Amelia Lee (HCI #10) before Deanna Ng (RI #13) was released on the break by Vienna Chua Qi (#6). With time winding down, Deanna Ng successfully made what RI thought was a game-winning basket, but the referees disallowed it as they judged that the final buzzer has already gone before she released the ball.
With the score tied at 53-53 at the buzzer, this forced the game into overtime, where HCI went on to win 65-60.
Not sure if that was the right call?
Now you can make your own decision. Just follow this method devised by Erwin “Statsman” Wong, Red Sports’ resident guru on all things statistical.
All you need is a stop-watch.
Here is what you should do – play the YouTube video that shows the final minutes of the regulation time. At the 6:15 minute mark, HCI is making the inbound pass, starting the final play of the game. The clock is down to 13.3 seconds at this point (as shown during the 5:35 mark).
Start your stop-watch from the time the HCI player receives the ball from the inbound pass (throw in). Then stop it the moment the ball leaves Deanna Ng’s hands at the end.
If it is below 13.3 seconds, the basket should have counted and RI should have been the new champions. If it is more than 13.3 seconds, the referees were on the mark.
You decide.
Uhhh, RI should have won. It’s pretty obvious. The ball left before buzzer. It’s not a 50-50 thing, but it’s a 100-0 thing. But nevermind, RI will be back stronger, I hope.
And to add on, RI didn’t play well, judging by the uhhh 7 minutes I’ve watched? At least they didn’t play well for that 7 minutes. So it’s technically not the referee’s fault too. If they had played well during the 7 minutes, they would have won, nevertheless.
The refs did the right thing. It’s not a matter of whether the call was accurate or not. In 50-50 situations, the refs should NOT be the ones deciding the outcome of the game. The players should be the ones. By sending the game to OT, the refs allowed both sides an opportunity to win the game by themselves. How many times have we accused refs of killing the game because “they want to go home early”? IMHO, good call in this case, in the true spirit of officiating.
i like this. 😀
does all this matter anymore? the ref has the final say! like normal fouls, even though some are wrong calls, when the ref blow it, no one can overrule it. That is the rule of the game.