Boulder Creek’s comeback bid doused by official’s call
MARC BUCKHOUT ~MANAGING EDITOR ~ 11/30/2011

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Friday night’s championship game in the Boulder Creek Thanksgiving Invitational had a chance to be a lot of things for the Jaguars girls basketball program.
Under first year coach Josiah McDaniel the Jaguars were in position to post the team’s  first 4-0 start since the 2006-2007 season and their first four-game winning streak since February of the 2009-2010 season in addition to winning the title in the inaugural season of their tournament.
With 1:07 left in the game they also were primed to complete an impressive comeback as the Jaguars had rallied from down 14 heading into the fourth quarter and as many as 16
in the second half to claim their first lead since the first quarter at 48-47.
Ther rally was necessary after the Jaguars offense went cold in the second quarter as Desert Mountain’s defense held the Jaguars scoreless for the first five minutes. During the drought a 12-12 tie turned into a 27-12 Desert Mountain advantage.
Boulder Creek junior Sam Young said she wasn’t surprised that her team was able to rally from the early deficit.
“I knew we’d keep fighting,” the center said. “We’re a team. We just had to stick together.”
Despite playing shorthanded, with both junior Delaney Swader and senior Kacey Winter sitting out with injuries, the Jaguars had an opportunity to post a win against a state playoff team from a season ago thanks to a defensive effort that limited the visiting Wolves to only one field goal in the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately for the Jaguars Desert Mountain didn’t need to make any field goals to pull out a 58-50 win. Instead the visiting Wolves scored their final 11 points at the foul line thanks in large part to a bizarre turn of events with 53 seconds remaining in the game.
After the Jaguars took the lead with 1:07 remaining Desert Mountain brought the ball up the court where Jaguars sophomore Hannah Neilson was whistled for her fifth and final foul. In such circumstances coaches are allotted 30 seconds to decide on a substitution for the disqualified player. In most cases coaches milk this opportunity, whether to give final instructions to the player coming into the game or simply to let the players on the court catch their breath.
The game typically resumes once the referee walks over to the bench and tells the coach his time is up and a substitute needs to report, in much the same way a baseball umpire ends a meeting on the mound.
Instead of handling a very common practice in typical fashion, the official called a technical foul for delay of game on the Jaguars team. Even if the officials believed McDaniel had taken too much time they have the ability to give a delay of game warning. In that scenario only a second delay results in a technical foul.
Upon receiving the technical, a surprised and angered McDaniel shot off the bench for an explanation and was hit with a technical foul himself.
In calling the unusual delay of game technical (something I’ve never witnessed in the last nearly 12 years as a reporter, nor in four years of playing high school basketball here in Arizona) Desert Mountain’s Carly Rose got to shoot six free throws, two for the initial foul on Nielson and then two for each of the two technical fouls. Additionally the Wolves retained possession.
When Nielson made 5-of-6 free throws to take her team from down one to up four Boulder Creek was forced to foul as Desert Mountain attempted to run out the clock. Once again Rose was fouled. This time she made both free throws as Boulder Creek watched Desert Mountain go from down one to up six before they could even get the ball back.
With less than a minute to go in the game the Jaguars simply didn’t have enough time to overcome the questionable call.
Following the game a still dumbfounded and disappointed McDaniel talked about his team’s effort outside the locker room.
“We did a great job getting back in the game by getting stops defensively and we got big contributions from Sam (Young), Samika (Mendoza), Molly (Collins) and Darian (Slaga),” he said. “To take a one point lead and then to have the game get away from us there at the end… it was just a shame what happened.”
As Desert Mountain players and coaches filed out of their locker room, several offered McDaniel condolences for what they deemed a, “bogus call”.
The Jags coach said his team has plenty of improving to do.
“We’re still learning to play together,” he said. “We’ll get better as we get more experience.”
He also said he’s excited at the prospect of getting Swader and Winter back in the mix, estimating they might be able to return to action within the next week or so.
“They’re two very good players that will bring more speed to our team,” he said.
Along with adding to the team’s full-court pressure defense, the two also figure to alleviate some of the offensive burden from Slaga. The team’s freshman point guard averaged a staggering 22.5 points per game over the first four contests,
using her ball-handling skills and speed to consistently get to the basket.
In getting to the championship game the Jaguars rolled over Central by 38 points on Nov. 21, defeated Thunderbird by 20 on Nov. 22 and then beat Shadow Mountain by 12 on Nov. 23.
Both Slaga and junior center Sam Young, who averaged 12.25 points per game, were named to the all-tournament team.
On Tuesday the Jaguars resumed play with a home game against Mountain Ridge (results unavailable at press time) and then take on Horizon in a 7 p.m. home game Friday.