Trakh Says Scoring Error Was Unintentional

After reviewing film of Brea-Olinda High School’s 59-56 overtime victory over Los Angeles Washington Saturday, Brea girls’ basketball Coach Mark Trakh agreed that Washington lost a point, but says it was unintentional.

“I checked the tape of the game and they should have had 45 at the end of the third quarter instead of 44,” Trakh said Sunday.

“It is unfortunate that a thing like this happenned but it was an honest mistake. This really takes away from the efforts by both teams.”

With Brea-Olinda, USA Today’s sixth-ranked team in the nation, trailing by 10 points at the end of the third quarter, Washington Coach Phil Chase noticed that his team was missing a point.

He protested that the score should read, 45-34, instead of the scorekeeper’s score of 44-34.

Chase claimed that there was a free throw unaccounted for but officials decided differently after checking with the running scores of the official scorekeeper from Brea-Olinda and the visiting scorer from Washington, who both had the same total.

That one point proved to be critical to Washington, the defending 4-A champion, as Brea-Olinda rallied to send the game into overtime at 54-54 on Aimee McDaniel’s three-pointer with 10 seconds remaining in regulation.

Brea, the top team in the Southern Section, took control in overtime as Washington’s top two players, center Charisse Sampson and guard Detra Lockhart, fouled out.

Despite the ending, Chase does not plan to protest as Washington (14-3) heads into its City Southern Pacific Conference play.

“If you’re 10 points ahead, you shouldn’t lose anyway,” said Chase, whose team has played 16 of its 17 games on the road. “It was a fun and exciting game between two good teams and it shows that we can play with them.

“Hopefully, losing this game makes the kids more dedicated to reach their goals.”