The Holy Innocents basketball team in Georgia was recently feted for its terrific sportsmanship and support of team manager turned Senior Night hero Daniel Vukotic. Now it’s back in the news, for much less fortunate news: It’s been eliminated from the state playoffs, even though it didn’t deserve to be.
As submitted to USA TODAY’s by a pair of Holy Innocents parents and also reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Holy Innocents was eliminated by Swainsboro in the second round of the Class AA state basketball playoffs. The final score was 57-52 in favor of Swainsboro, but it took overtime for Swainsboro to pull out the win.
Yet Swainsboro never would have reached overtime if it hadn’t had a little unintentional help from an official. As you can see in both the video above and below, Holy Innocents led 43-40 with 3:08 remaining in the game when a Swainsboro player went to the line to attempt a free throw after a made basket. His attempt missed, rattling off the rim and landing to the left. Yet, somehow, Swainsboro was still credited with a point over the following 30 seconds, cutting Holy Innocents’ lead to a single basket.
That lead eventually evaporated just before the end of regulation, and Swainsboro’s momentum helped carry it to victory in overtime. What’s worse, when Holy Innocents caught the error and reported it to state authorities, they were told there was nothing that could be done because officials did note any reason for discrepancy in their game reports.
‘’I am in no way saying that they cheated,’’ Holy Innocents coach Terry Kelly told the Journal-Constitution. “I’m saying that there was a mistake that was made that either for the future has to be changed, or figure out a way to make this right, either replaying the game, or replaying from the 3-minute, 8-second mark. That’s the right thing to do.
“(The Holy Innocents players are) devastated. They were hoping reasonable adults would see this as an issue and correct it. To say they’re upset and disappointed is an understatement.’’
For now, Kelly and his team will have a long time to mull over what could have been before the 2015-16 season tips off.
