[More Cowbell]

After knocking off the north #1 seed Belfry in the semis, Valley upset the south #1 seed Elkhorn in the finals to win the county championship.

I watched this one online, it was a great game in front of an overflow crowd. Valley blitzed Elkhorn early and led by 15 at the half. The Cougars mounted a comeback in the 2nd and cut the lead to one, but never got over the hump and Valley closed out the last few minutes with a bang.

Good job to both teams.

[Cougars23]

EC started off slow down 27-12 at the half. But stormed back big in the third. Down 1 starting the 4th. But the refs not having it. Every time EC got close it was a foul. Free Throw attempts were 23-3 the second half. That speaks for itself

[Cougars23]

Has anyone ever seen 23-3 FT attempts in one half. Ridiculous

[More Cowbell]

A lot of that foul discrepancy is because EC had to foul on purpose to stop the clock late in the 4th quarter. Before that, the difference wasn't as big.

But the main reason there was a difference in foul shots was the offensive gameplan for each team. EC took the ball inside a few times early in the 2nd half and was sent to the line on 3 separate occasions. But after that, they seemed content to just launch threes the rest of the game. Hard to go to the line when you just shoot long jumpers. Valley on the other hand was taking it inside much more frequently, and drew a lot of contact. A team that shoots closer shots will tend to shoot more freebies. Just the way it is.

I will say I thought the tech called on the EC player in the 2nd half was not warranted. He did push off, but a common foul would have been appropriate in that situation. Beyond that, I don't remember anything that looked like a really bad call.

[elkcity2225]

I would think that if you watched the game you would have seen that Elkhorn City never went to a intentional foul strategy. There may have been one or two in the final seconds after both teams had subbed but the rest of the discrepancy was all during live game action.

[Cougars23]

Good informational post More Cowbell but I cant see any scenario where it is a 1 point game at the end of 3 and one team wins by 16 when FT attempts are 23-3 in the sond half. Mostly in the 4th. It just does not look good at all especially for home team. Just does not look good. Any independent opinion would agree. No matter what each teams game plan is.

[More Cowbell]

I would think that if you watched the game you would have seen that Elkhorn City never went to a intentional foul strategy. There may have been one or two in the final seconds after both teams had subbed but the rest of the discrepancy was all during live game action.

I re-watched it and counted 3 fouls in the last couple minutes that if they weren't intentional, they were at the very least going HARD for a steal. That's 6 free throws, making it 17-3. I also admitted that the technical was a bad call. So that's 15-3 in live action.

Good informational post More Cowbell but I cant see any scenario where it is a 1 point game at the end of 3 and one team wins by 16 when FT attempts are 23-3 in the sond half. Mostly in the 4th. It just does not look good at all especially for home team. Just does not look good. Any independent opinion would agree. No matter what each teams game plan is.

As for the rest of the discrepancy, I will agree that it doesn't look good. When the winning shoots way more free throws than the losing team, it gives the appearance of favoritism.

The thing is, while the box score may look bad, if someone watched the game objectively, they would say that the foul difference was legit. Elkhorn basically stopped taking any shots inside the arc, so they really didn't earn any more than 3 free throws. Valley kept going to the goal and drawing contact. Other than the technical, I did not see any calls that were obviously bad.