PORTER LEADS COBRAS PAST EAGLES

South Miami used its tremendous high advantage and biased officiating to remain undefeated in the district, hanging on for a 48-42 victory at Southwest. The Eagles (7-8, 5-5) never got their offense going until the fourth quarter, trailing 8-6 after one period, 27-13 at the half, and 38-21 entering the final quarter. Brian Stewart scored 5 points in the first two minutes of the fourth period as Southwest's 7-0 run cut the Cobras lead to 10. With 2:35 remaining, Michael Juachon stole the ball and drove to the basket, cutting the lead to 42-36. Gio Gonzalez, the only player on either team to score in double figures, cut the margin to 44-40 with a basket at 1:40. Another bucket with 1:01 on the clock closed the gap to 44-42. With 45 seconds remaining, South Miami (10-3, 9-0) missed the front end of a one-and-one, the ball going out-of-bounds to Southwest. The Eagles missed a 3-pointer with 12 seconds left and were forced to foul. The Cobras made 4 free throws in the final 9 seconds to close out the game. Referee Madison Porter may have cost Southwest the game with his lack of knowledge of the rules. Rule 10.1.1 requires that each team designate the 5 starting players at least 10 minutes before game time. The penalty is a technical foul (two free throws and possession). South Miami did not provide its starters in time. Porter knew this and did nothing. Rule 10.3.3 prohibits players from grabbing the basket. A Cobras player did this right in front of Porter, who did nothing. That should have been a second technical foul. Rule 9.2.10 says that on a throw-in, the opponent of the thrower may not have any part of his "person through the inbounds side of the throw-in boundary line-plane until the ball has been released." South Miami did this twice. The penalty in the first instance should have been a warning and, for the second infraction, a technical foul. Porter single-handedly cost Southwest 6 free throws and 3 possessions by not knowing the rules.
The scoring:
Gonzalez 14
Portales 9
Stewart 7
Lleonart 6
Juachon 6