EDITOR'S NOTE: Please scroll to the bottom of this story to watch two videos of the game's dramatic and controversial conclusion.
Old Bridge High School has filed a formal protest with the Greater Middlesex Conference on behalf of its boys basketball team, whose head coach believes the officiating crew and league assignor adversely impacted the outcome of a recent league tournament game.
Veteran mentor Jim Macomber said he wants the pto take absolutely nothing away from ninth-seeded New Brunswick, which rallied for a stunning 50-49 comeback victory over his top-seeded Knights on a controversial buzzer-beater during Sunday’s GMC tournament quarterfinals.
Spotswood High School Athletics Director Bill Visokay, who serves as co-chair for the conference tournament’s seeding committee, confirmed the GMC has received Old Bridge’s protest, which the league’s controversies committee will review.
The protest will have no impact on New Brunswick, which will be making its first appearance in the league tournament semifinals in 16 years on Wednesday against fourth-seeded Piscataway.
Effusive as he was in his praise of New Brunswick, Macomber said he believes the winning shot left the shooter’s hands after time expired and that the league’s assignor of officials, Ray Perone, who was not officiating the contest, but watching it from the sidelines, played a role in putting more time on the game clock that allowed the winning shot to take place.
Macomber said Old Bridge filed the protest with the hope of ensuring no other team falls victim to what he believes were two critical officiating errors, both of which he believes cost his team an opportunity to advance.
With 5.5 seconds remaining, New Brunswick inbounded the ball from beneath its own basket with a long pass beyond the midcourt stripe, setting up Ahyan Brown-Miller in a well-designed play for an uncontested 3-pointer from the right wing that trimmed Old Bridge’s lead to 49-48.
After the basket, New Brunswick immediately called timeout, but Macomber said the clock operator let the scoreboard clock run to zero.
Macomber said he believed no one in the gymnasium at Middlesex County College disputed time still remained in the game following Brown-Miller’s clutch bucket. At issue, however was just how much time remained.
Macomber said one of the game officials walked over to the scorer’s table and told the scorer to put 1.6 seconds on the clock. Moments later, with 1.6 seconds showing on the scoreboard, Macomber said another game official told the scorer to put 2.2 seconds on the clock. Macomber said he asked that official why another .6 seconds was added. Macomber said that official told him Perone, who was watching the game from the sidelines, told him to put 2.2 seconds on the clock.
“He is the assignor for the GMC, somebody wearing a shirt and tie,” Macomber said of Perone, a highly respected official who works NCAA Division I games. “It’s not his job to tell the officials what to do on the floor. He over-stepped his bounds. He influenced their call.”
MyCentralJersey.com was unable to reach Perone, who did not return a text message, for comment. Under NJSIAA guidelines, game officials are not permitted to talk to the media.
South River High School Athletics Director Carl Buffalino, a former basketball coach who co-chairs the conference basketball tournament seeding committee, said he was standing next to Perone when a game official inquired about the scoreboard clock.
“Ray’s opinion was asked,” Buffalino said. “He gave his opinion. I have no problem with it. He didn’t give an order as to say put this much time on the clock. In the heat of the moment, it was a split-second decision. Ray gave an answer. I’m in full support of it. If asked my opinion, I would have given them an opinion, just like Ray did. Ray did nothing wrong.”
Old Bridge Athletics Director Dan DiMino, however, said he believes the game officials should not have requested input from anyone at all outside of their three-man crew.
“The officials who are assigned these games are graded all year, and these officials are the best the GMC has, so there really shouldn’t be anybody but the three officials that have the knowledge and expertise and really are the best making the decision,” DiMino said regarding the time that needed to be placed on the game clock. “If those three put their heads together, they would have been able to come up with a time on their own. There wouldn’t have been a question. The question became when Ray answered back. That’s his opinion 100 percent. But that’s a big opinion. Ray is a very well-respected official that’s been around for a numerous amount of years. I just don’t think his opinion (should have been sought) at that point.”
With 2.2 seconds on the clock, Old Bridge inbounded the ball from beneath its own basket. Brown-Miller intercepted a bounce pass. Following the steal, Brown-Miller fed Tahjay Moore, who drained a 13-foot jumper near the baseline as time expired for the dramatic victory.
“The ball is clearly in the hands of the player when he is shooting it while the backboard went red,” said Macomber, referring to the red light that flashes around the perimeter of the backboard when the shot or game clock simultaneously sounds.
“If the time wasn’t changed and it stayed at 1.6, there’s not even a question about the buzzer shot because (Moore) wouldn’t even have been able to shoot the ball,” DiMino said. “That’s why time was such an important factor.”
After Moore’s shot was made, Macomber and DiMino both said mass confusion ensued with Old Bridge and New Brunswick each believing it had won the game. DiMino said the game officials sprinted off the court as spectators left the stands and rushed onto the floor to celebrate. Macomber said the clock operator delayed posting the final score on the board. DiMino said he believed the game officials should have conferenced immediately after the shot was made to ensure it left Moore’s hands before time expired.
DiMino, a former basketball coach, said he believes the final 5.5 seconds of the game can be used as a teaching tool to make officials better. He hopes Perone will review the specific scenario with the league’s officials. DiMino said he also hopes the conference will consider instituting video review for select rounds of the league tournament.
Macomber and DiMino both said they do not want Old Bridge’s protest in any way to detract from New Brunswick’s victory.
“We knew that New Brunswick coming in was a tough team,” Macomber said of the resilient Zebras, who entered the fourth quarter either trailing or tied in their two previous conference tournament games.
“They won each of those games late and never quit. They gave us all we could handle for sure. They are a hard-nosed team and a good team and definitely a team on the rise. They fought to the end. Credit them. They never stopped playing.”
Macomber said New Brunswick has two outstanding players in Tahjay Moore, whose 13-foot jumper near the baseline proved to be the winning bucket, and Ahyan Brown-Miller, who assisted on that basket with a steal and whose clutch 3-pointer from the right wing with 2.2 seconds remaining enabled the Zebras to close a four-point deficit to one.
The coach added that quality players surround New Brunswick’s two stars and that the young Zebras are built for the future.
“My biggest thing is we are a program trying to turn things around to get better,” Macomber said. “We work at this 12 months a year. It (advancing to the semifinals) was taken away by four people who in my opinion didn’t do their job. We are devastated. Not to take away anything from the other team, but at the end of the day we still had one more point on the board.
“This really leaves a sour taste in our mouth, but there’s no way to fix the problem. We’re looking to use this as fuel going into the states.”
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