Scoring mistake costs Witt women a victory

Wittenberg basket is credited to Case Western.

Sarah Watson (32) of Wittenberg has a last-second shot turned over as she is double-teamed by Evy Iacono (5) and Caitlin Henry (10) of Case Western during Wednesday’s game on Dec. 30. Case Western won the game 60-58.

Staff photo by Barbara J. Perenic Sarah Watson (32) of Wittenberg has a last-second shot turned over as she is double-teamed by Evy Iacono (5) and Caitlin Henry (10) of Case Western during Wednesday’s game on Dec. 30. Case Western won the game 60-58.

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By David Jablonski, Staff Writer 11:11 PM Wednesday, December 30, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — The normal method of determining a winner didn’t help the Wittenberg women’s basketball team on Wednesday, Dec. 30. The Tigers scored more points than Case Western Reserve in the championship game of the Charles B. Zimmerman Memorial Classic — and they lost.

One fan, who has been watching Wittenberg games for decades, said he had never seen anything like it.

A mistake at the scorer’s table midway through the second half took two points away from Wittenberg and gave them to Case Western. That four-point swing loomed large when Case Western rallied for a 60-58 victory at Pam Evans Smith Arena.

“The official story is we actually won the basketball game,” Wittenberg coach Sarah Jurewicz said, “but according to the official table, the book, they had it the way the final score read. Up here in the broadcast booth, the stat people, they’re really perplexed. They don’t know what to do with the final stats, because they’ve got us winning the basketball game.”

Wittenberg’s stat-keepers in the press box alerted the officials to the problem right away. After huddling for several minutes, the officials decided to go with the official scorebook on the floor.

Wittenberg athletic director Garnett Purnell, who was running the scoreboard, said because the points had been entered into the official book and because they were not allowed to view videotape or compare the book to the stats being kept in the press box, they could not make a change.

The error came around the 13-minute mark of the second half. Carrie Dyer scored eight points for the Tigers in a two-minute span, but one of the baskets was credited to Case Western. Instead of trailing 42-38 with 11:50 to go, the Tigers trailed 44-36.

Shouts rained down from the stands, but the mistake wasn’t corrected.

“My coach (assistant Cody Smith) was saying to me, ‘The score’s not right,’” Jurewicz said. “I said, ‘We’ll let the table take care of it because that’s the table’s job. We put our faith in those people.”

Despite all that, the Tigers (4-5) actually erased a 12-point deficit and led by three in the final minutes. But Case Western (8-2) tied the game on three free throws with 26 seconds left and won the game on a layup by Caitlin Henry with 4 seconds to play.

“This was a strange, weird game,” Jurewicz said. “All we can do is say, ‘Well we’ve got to look forward to the next game.’ It’s not going to do us any good to be so angry about this result that it’s going to distract us.”

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Home team earned (2) points and those points were credited to the visiting team. At the end when the game was tied, a new rule came into play. You cannot call timeout while jumping out of bounds. Home team crossed half court for a final shot; visiting team intercepted a pass and motioned for a time out, while leaping out of bounds. The visiting team should not have been granted a time out or the ball. They proceeded to score the final(2) points of the game. Thus, the four point margin of error!

Sports Fan
1:07 PM, 1/14/2010

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Color me puzzled. How did "shouts rain down from the stands?" Was the scoreboard wrong? Not many fans anywhere can see the official book. If the officials were informed at that moment they were duty bound to rectify the matter, but if it was not raised until after the final buzzer, I'm afraid Wittenberg is stuck with it Who was the home team?. Wittenberg is a name burned into my memory. when I was at Rider, then NAIA, in 1954, we led Witt 60-49 with 10 minutes remaining and lost 90-79

Doug Smith
11:31 AM, 1/9/2010

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While I feel bad for the Wittenberg, I do have to question this quote:

“The official story is we actually won the basketball game,” Wittenberg coach Sarah Jurewicz said

They did not officially win the game. That is the problem many times in this world. As much as it stinks, they had still had a chance to win the game and they didn't. Stop making excuses to the newspaper and figure out how not to make it happen in again.

Da Real Deal
4:12 PM, 1/3/2010

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I'm disappointed that some reconciliation couldn't have been made to rectify this terrible mistake. Is there no room for ownership of mistakes and flexibility in college sports?

Terry Smith
10:47 PM, 12/31/2009

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