White Basketball Team in New Jersey Beats Black Team on Buzzer Beater but Refs Reverse the Call

A white basketball team in New Jersey (Manasquan) beat a black team (Camden) on a buzzer beater in the New Jersey state playoffs, but the refs reversed the call. The kid got the shot off with half a second on the clock. Everybody knows what happened here.

In the wake of Manasquan's controversial loss to Camden in Tuesday night's dramatic NJSIAA Group 2 boys basketball semifinal, the school district is exploring legal remedies after its appeal of the decision by game officials to disallow a game-winning shot by Manasquan was rejected by the NJSIAA, which governs high school sports in the state. After Camden took a 46-45 lead on a pair of free throws with 5.8 seconds to play at Central Regional Tuesday night, Manasquan’s Griffin Linstra scored the game-winning basket off an offensive rebound just before time expired, with officials initially ruling the basket was good. But after the three officials huddled moments later, the decision was overturned and the basket disallowed, saying it left Linstra's hand after time expired.

There is overwhelming video evidence that the shot was in the air before the clock ran out, but NJSIAA rules prohibit the use of video or audio replay to review game decisions. The NJSIAA issued a statement around 1 p.m. Wednesday, in which they apologized for the mistake, and said that nothing can be done: “Unlike in college or the pros, there is no instant replay review in high school basketball in New Jersey. These are the rules of the game that all schools agree to follow, and which have been upheld on appeal. We apologize to the Manasquan team for the error.”

What the NJSIAA does not address in the statement was the fact that it used video replay earlier this year a day after a game between Atlantic City and Mainland. In that case, the NJSIAA did use video replay to make a decision to disqualify Atlantic City from the NJSIAA tournament, reviewing Atlantic City's 49-48 win on Jan. 10 over Mainland Regional. It was determined that five players left the bench during an incident near the end of the third quarter. Any player who leaves the bench is supposed to be ejected, and any team with three or more ejections for a season is not eligible for the state tournament. In addition, other games have been reversed after officials have left the court/field. In last year's NJSIAA baseball tournament, Ridge was disqualified by the NJSIAA two days later for a pitch-count violation during an 8-1 win over Westfield. The ruling came when the Ridge pitcher threw one more pitch than he was allowed to.

Read entire article here: https://www.app.com/story/sports/high-school/basketball/2024/03/06/manasquan-may-seek-legal-remedy-after-njsiaa-rejects-appeal-of-camden-loss/72864862007/