Dear Editor
North Battleford Comprehensive High School Viking girls were eliminated from gold medal contention on the weekend in 4A girls' basketball against Moose Jaw Peacock by a scorekeeping error that scorekeepers and officials refused to recognize.
At the end of the first quarter the score should have been 18 to 15 for Moose Jaw but by some twitch the scoreboard inexplicably changed to 20 to 13 in favour of Moose Jaw. Fans and coaches knew an error had been made, but when the NBCHS coach approached the scoring table during quarter time one official basically told him to sit down or risk ejection for the remainder of the tournament and the error was not corrected. Thus, the score went from Moose Jaw being up by three points to them having an unearned seven-point advantage (three earned plus four scorekeeper bonus points).
He usual procedure followed when an error is deemed to have been made is for coaches from both teams and both officials plus the scorekeepers to discuss the situation and the error is remedied or acknowledged. In this case Moose Jaw's statistician did not approach the scoring table and neither did the second official. So the error was allowed to perpetuate. At the end of regulation time the uncorrected score showed the game tied at 62. In fact if North Battleford had been given the two points that were deleted from their first quarter score and Moose Jaw had had their unearned two points deducted from their score the actual score was Moose Jaw 60 and North Battleford 64. Instead, the game went into overtime and Moose Jaw emerged with their unearned victory with a score of 68 to Vikings 64.
This is a grievous error that demoralized the North Battleford Vikings. SHSAA, the scorekeepers and the officials for that game should be held accountable and although it is now too late to change the error they should at the least acknowledge that it was made and offer a token apology to the Viking girls.
Fans of NBCHS have a tape of the game and the error can be seen on the video. This was a game that determined who would contend for the gold and silver medals in the next round. It is outrageous that the error was not at the least discussed properly. It is also shameful on the part of Moose Jaw coaching staff that they did not step forward with their stats to clarify the error. This is high school provincial finals and an error of this magnitude is simply unjust.
Sheila Johnson
North Battleford
