The final buzzer never sounded in Kenwood’s 73-70 overtime win against visiting Curie on Thursday.
There were still 0.7 seconds left on the clock when Condors coach Mike Oliver signaled that he had seen enough and gave in to defeat.
No. 11 Curie and No. 3 Kenwood are two of the state’s best teams. Both are contenders for the Class 4A state title. The players deserved better than what transpired over the course of a nearly two-and-a-half-hour high school basketball game. The officials were confused throughout, constantly discussing things amongst themselves and then explaining decisions to enraged coaches. And then discussing things again. There was more of that drama than actual basketball.
The key snafu came early in the overtime. Kenwood star guard Dai Dai Ames picked up his fifth foul but wasn’t removed from the game. He scored a basket on a breakaway layup before the officials noticed the error. The points counted and gave the Broncos a 67-65 lead with 2:01 left in overtime.
“We told [the officials] he fouled out,” Curie coach Mike Oliver said. “[Ames] started walking towards the bench. [Kenwood coach Mike Irvin] told Ames to stay on the court. The table told [the officials] he was out. They let him sneak down the court and stand in the corner. A disqualified player can’t score a bucket. How can a disqualified player play? How can you mess that up?”
Ames said he was unaware how many fouls he had so he stayed on the court.
“I thought I had three or four fouls,” Ames said. “That’s the ref’s fault. They tried to call a technical on me and I didn’t know I fouled out.”
There were numerous other arguments and incidents throughout the second half and overtime. Kenwood (15-2, 5-0) had the ball and the lead with 0.7 seconds left when Oliver decided to stop arguing and move on.
“At some point you just accept that they are cheating,” Oliver said. “The officials are scared to go tell Kenwood they are wrong. They are cheating the kids, not me.”
Irvin said he was confused about the foul situation throughout the game.
“I was mainly wondering why Curie shot 16 free throws in the first half,” Irvin said. “I’ve never seen that in my life. Throughout all the officiating we showed we were the better team.”
The win puts Kenwood in the driver’s seat for the Red-South/Central title. The Broncos have settled on an intriguing starting lineup that leaves three of the state’s most talented juniors, Calvin Robins Jr., Isaiah Green and Chris Riddle, as contributors off the bench.
Robins had 21 points and 10 rebounds and Riddle was 4 for 4 from the free-throw line in the final 22 seconds to seal the win.
“I’m totally good with accepting my role and coming off the bench,” Robins said. “And having Riddle back [from injury] has been huge for us. He’s winning us games.”
Ames led Kenwood with 25 points.
“This is a special group,” Irvin said. “They don’t get rattled during games like this and some of the best players in the state have accepted coming off the bench. If you want to go down in history as a great team everyone has to buy in. It started with Robins coming to me and telling me he’d be ok with not starting. That shows the type of kid he is.”
Jeremy Harrington scored 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Condors (12-5, 3-1). His three pointer at the regulation buzzer sent the game to overtime.
Shawn Brown scored 15 points for Curie and Chikasi Ofoma added nine points and eight rebounds. The Condors played without star junior guard Carlos Harris, who is expected to be back soon from an injury.
