WA fans’ protests moot

History should record the Winthrop-Washington Academy Class C state basketball game as one which featured a great comeback, explosive offensive displays, aggressive defensive play, and unparalleled intensity.

It should record the game as one which featured a sweet, athletic 3-point shot by Winthrop’s Jeff Love whose basket at the buzzer gave the Ramblers the 67-66 victory over the Raiders of East Machias for the gold basketball.

Instead, history could now be marred by controversy and Winthrop’s gold basketball may be tarnished.

In the weeks following the game, letters started coming to this newspaper from WA supporters, claiming the Raiders were robbed of their state title. The sentiment was so strong that WA officials even had the audacity to send a letter to the Maine Secondary School Principals’ Association, questioning the game’s officiating and asking for explanations.

The questions, and feeling that WA was the real winner in the state game revolve around the game’s final six seconds. In that time frame, Winthrop’s Geoff Cobb charged up the right sideline, and forced a pass to R.J. Jenkins, who lost the ball. WA’s Derek Feeney dove for the ball, missed, and Love picked it up, nailing the 3-pointer.

WA supporters contend, after they watched a videotape of the game, that the play lasted 7.9 seconds, not six seconds and thus the basket should never have counted and WA should be the real state champ.

Enough please. It is all a moot point now. Once the players and officials left the Augusta Civic Center court, the game was over. Any correctable situation could only have occurred at the game.

The letters of protest, bemoaning the claim that WA was robbed of the state title, reek of the worst smell of sour grapes and have put an unwelcome black mark on the contest. The WA supporters, apparently, have forgotten that a very big part of any game is its intangibles – the human factors beyond the control of officials, game clocks, and modern technology.

When WA’s Feeney went to the foul line and hit the front end of a one-and-one to up WA’s lead to 66-64, there were nine seconds left in the game. He missed the second shot, a Winthrop player grabbed the rebound and called a timeout in the same motion. In that time – which should have taken one or two seconds at the most – three seconds had ticked off the clock, which doesn’t display the time to the tenths of seconds.

Over the course of the 32-minute game, there were certainly other occurrences such as these which affected the outcome. Officials’ calls, for or against WA, affected the game. The calls were made on the spot, they were not dissected with an instant replay camera to judge whether they were correct.

The running of a game clock and officials’ calls are part of the game’s intangibles – they cannot be changed and those who expect they should be changed are either being naive or have a poor understanding of the game of basketball.

The WA supporters have also incorrectly only focused on the game’s final six seconds. Their memories, at best, are selective.

They have forgotten that Winthrop trailed WA by 12 points with 5:58 left in the game and had to outscore WA 11-3 in the next minutes to take a 64-63 lead with 1:49 left. Any team which can mount that kind of late-game rally deserves to be a state champion.

They have forgotten that Winthrop nailed 14 of 14 foul shots, compared to WA’s 11-for-17 effort. A team which is perfect from the foul line in a pressure-packed contest deserves to be a state champion.

They have forgotten that Winthrop outrebounded WA 32-16. A team which controls the rebounding game deserves to be a state champion.

The Winthrop boys are the state’s 1991-92 Class C basketball champs. They defeated the WA Raiders in a 32-minute basketball game, a game which featured breaks and bouncing balls in both teams’ favor.

The sooner WA fans can come to this realization, the sooner the tarnish can be wiped off Winthrop’s gold basketball – a tarnish which never deserved to be there.