Official Defends Referees’ Ruling : Big West: Supervisor says inbounds play in Titan loss to San Jose State was handled correctly.

John Dangleis, supervisor of basketball officials for the Big West Conference, defended the referees’ ruling on an inbounds play in Cal State Fullerton’s 84-82 loss at San Jose State Saturday night that upset Titan Coach Brad Holland.

Holland phoned Dangleis Monday to complain about the officiating, particularly on the inbounds play with the Titans trailing, 83-82, and 63 seconds remaining.

Officials set the ball down on the baseline and began the five-second count after the Titans were late coming out of their huddle. Fullerton had to use its final timeout to maintain possession of the ball. The Titans could have used the timeout when they got the ball back trailing by one point with 13 seconds remaining.

After the game, Holland said the officials had not warned the Titans to break their huddle 15 seconds before the timeout ended.

“They say they gave us a warning after the timeout,” Holland said. “No one on our staff heard any kind of warning. They are supposed to give us a warning.”

Dangleis said Monday that Collegiate Commissioners Assn. rules instruct officials not to enter the team huddle, but only to raise their index finger when the scorer’s horn sounds with the 15-second warning. After conferring with Dave Libbey, one of three officials working the game, Dangleis said both warnings were properly issued.

“Evidently it was noisy in the gym and they (Fullerton staff) didn’t hear the horn,” Dangleis said. “Bob Hunt, one of the officials, raised his finger and thought he caught the Fullerton trainer’s eye. The officials try to avoid putting the ball down in a situation like that, but Libbey couldn’t set aside the rule in that situation.”

Dangleis has contacted the officials who worked the game--Hunt, Libbey and Dick Cartmell--and explained the details of the rule to Holland.

“Nothing came out of this incident because the officials did it by the book,” Dangleis said. “But I realize that doesn’t make this taste any better. What made it so tough was that it was a one-point game and Fullerton didn’t want to use that last timeout.”

Fullerton (4-15, 2-9) plays Nevada at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Titan gym.