© Peter Ackerman / USA TODAY NETWORK
(Trenton, NJ) – It’s all over for Manasquan High School’s boys basketball team in their bid for a championship. After a stunning buzzer-beater appeared to send them to the state finals last Saturday, the crew refereeing the game got together and overturned the call. They said time had expired before the shot got off. But later, video clearly showed the shot had left the Manasquan player’s hand before the clock hit zero.
As a result of the missed call, Camden High School will take on Newark Arts High School this weekend to determine the state champion. Manasquan has exhausted its options in a bid to appeal the decision. The New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association — the state’s governing body for high school sports — initially declined to make a change, saying they can’t use video for review. The NJSIAA, while acknowledging it understands Manasquan’s frustration, said “the rules are clear — once game officials leave the ‘visual confines of the playing court,’ the game is concluded, and the score is official… results could not then and cannot now be changed.”
Then, the Department of Education ruled the decision will stand. Finally, Manasquan reported the state appeals court had denied to hear the case on Friday, which was the last option.
Earlier in the week, on Thursday, the case has played out in Ocean County Superior Court. A court filing put forth by the Manasquan Board of Education reads “video evidence of Manasquan’s game-winning basket is present, irrefutable, and conclusive … What followed next, however, was an absolute tragedy… For some unknown reason, the referee changed the ref’s opinion that made the original decision. We just need to make that wrong, right,” said Michael Gross, an attorney for the BOE.
But an attorney for Camden’s school board disagreed. “This case never should’ve been brought. There’s no authority under the law, it was frivolous to bring it here,” said attorney Louis Capelli Jr. “Are we going to go back and look at all 32 minutes of the game? It’s ridiculous, that’s not what we do, it’s high school basketball. There’s rules and regulations. You have to learn to live with the decisions of a referee. That’s a part of sports. Coming here was a waste of the taxpayers’ money.”
Ultimately, Ocean County’s judge determined there was no jurisdiction to hear the case.
The Manasquan school district issued a statement late Friday, after all the boy’s options had been exhausted: “While we had hoped for a different outcome, we now turn our full attention to supporting our Girls Basketball Team in tomorrow’s championship game. We remain deeply disappointed by the conduct of the NJSIAA throughout this process and regret the damage they have done to the lessons of sportsmanship we try to teach students every day.”
It appears an appeal filed by the school’s superintendent continues at this point.
