Technical foul overshadows PAC-10 Championship’s greatness

If you’re Perkiomen Valley, you’re irate.

If you’re Spring-Ford, you’re elated.

But what happens when both feelings are completely justifiable?

For the Vikings and the Rams, you get uncertainty.

It all came in the closing moments of regulation of the Pioneer Athletic Conference boys basketball championship:

Perkiomen Valley’s Justin Jaworski hit a 3-pointer to give the Vikings a 44-42 lead with 20 seconds remaining before Spring-Ford’s Matt Gnias hit a 3-pointer from the elbow seconds later to give the Rams a 45-44 lead with eight seconds left, prompting a PV timeout.

Following the timeout, Jaworski took the inbound pass from Sean Owens and raced down the court, floating up an improbable shot with three seconds remaining in regulation to give the Vikings the lead at 46-45 with 1.8 seconds remaining. The ball rattles home, Jaworski sprints down the court in jubilation while PV fans are preparing the storming — a move that public address announcers had explained four times would not be tolerated.

Spring-Ford head coach Chris Talley jumps up to call a quick timeout, 1.8 seconds trickle down to one. His words go unheard as the ball is inbounded to Nigel Cooke who heaves up a desperation lob from near his own baseline. His shot is just off target which sends the Viking student section onto the court, clock still reading 00:01. 

The team, the fans, the opposition believe the game was over.  Gnias, who hit a clutch 3-pointer seconds before, was shoving his way through the crowd to try and get away.

But what happens next will have fans talking for a long, long time. 

“I don’t think anybody has (been in a game like this) to be honest with you,” Talley said. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”

The fans were ushered back to their seats, referees convened and the teams gathered by their respective benches. Four minutes went by before the call that sent waves across the home bleachers was announced.

A technical foul on Perkiomen Valley.

The result: Cooke hit 1-of-2 from the free throw line to tie the game at 46 force the game into overtime, Gnias turned it on in overtime and Spring-Ford took the title that PV had seemingly held for all of three minutes, back into their grasp.

“Never in my life (have I been in a game like this),” Cooke said, moments after cutting down part of the net. “This is the craziest thing in my life that I have ever been a part of and it feels good too.”

The reasoning behind the call was never given to Talley who said he “asked a question and they (the referees) told me to get away.” Others remained after the game to try and find a definitive reason as to why the technical was called.

The presumed reason behind the technical foul was the premature celebration, whether it be from the PV student section or the PV bench.

Right call? Technically, as .01 remained on the clock as the team began their celebration (an extra second was added afterward when the refs granted Talley the timeout) — a violation to PIAA rules. 

Right call in that situation? Quite simply, no.

What the technical foul call did, and it is being heatedly debated by fans from both sides via Twitter whether Talley’s timeout should have been granted with Cooke’s heave off the inbound coming so quickly, was put a blemish on a game that was already marked as one of the best to ever be played in the championship round.

It overshadowed the 24 points scored by Gnias, the emergence of Cam Reid and the sensational play from Jaworski and Sean Owens.

It negated the electrifying pulse that the Ram gym had throughout the entire second half. The rowdiness expressed from both student sections, the cheerleaders going back and forth in competition. The good moments, the runs, the blocks and the 3-pointers … they are all already forgotten. 

And even worse, it put control of the game squarely in the hands of the referees, not the players who had battled it out for the past hour-plus.

Now when thinking about this game, the one question that will always come to mind will be: what if?

What if Talley hadn’t been granted the timeout. What if the referees let the play go and granted Perkiomen Valley the winners?

What if?

Now, instead of a winner and a loser, you get a mess. It’ll be a game that raises more questions than it provides answers. 

And for a game that will be thought upon as legendary for the first 31:45, that just isn’t fair. 

***Here is a link to the final two minutes of the game***