Skirmish, ejections in 3rd quarter mar Shadow Mountain’s victory
This should be a column about Phoenix Shadow Mountain’s 4A Conference boys basketball state championship victory over Tucson Salpointe Catholic on Saturday. And at some point it will be.
But first, we need to talk about an ugly incident during Shadow Mountain’s 81-48 win and the unfortunate aftermath.
Here are the essentials: There were 7.5 seconds in the third quarter when Shadow Mountain sophomore Jaelen House blocked a layup attempt by Salpointe’s Isaac Cruz. At the time, Shadow Mountain was up 68-39. The game was over, the championship won.
House, who was called for a foul, started taunting Cruz, who responded with a shove to the chest, knocking House backward. All of a sudden, players from both teams were pushing and shoving before being separated. Somehow, when order was restored, the empty sneakers of Shadow Mountain’s Marcus Shaver were on the free-throw line.
Both Cruz and House were ejected from the game, and rightly so. House prompted the skirmish with his yapping, and Cruz escalated it with a shove.
By itself, the incident wasn’t anything extraordinary. Players often lose control of their emotions, particularly with so much on the line.
More disturbing, however, was the postgame reaction of Shadow Mountain coach Mike Bibby.
When asked about it, Bibby absolved House of any blame.
“I don’t care what he said. The kid should never be able to throw a punch at our kid,” Bibby said.
“It shouldn’t even have gotten to that point. We’re up 30 points, so there was no hostility on our side . ... There’s trash talking going on all game. That’s part of the game. It should never get to the point where you put your hands on them.
“As a man ... you’ve got to defend yourself . ... Jaelen did what he has a right to do to defend himself.”
Sorry, but that’s nonsense.
I get that Bibby wants to defend his players. But House was in the wrong, as well. Taunting an opponent when you have a 29point lead is both unnecessary and provocative. Cruz reacted poorly, but his anger was understandable given the situation.
Fortunately, after officials brought the teams together, the fourth quarter was played without further incident. But when Arizona Interscholastic Association Executive Director Harold Slemmer went to present the championship trophy to Shadow Mountain, only Bibby was around to accept it. The players had gone into the locker room to be with House because AIA officials said he couldn’t return to the court.
The reasoning, according to Slemmer: House and Cruz had attempted to go after each other in the hallway and had to be separated by security. AIA officials feared another confrontation.
OK, that makes sense. But here’s what doesn’t: Even after Salpointe left the court after accepting its runner-up trophy, House wasn’t allowed to join his teammates on the floor to cut down the net. At that point, there was no reason to worry about another incident.
Preventing House from taking part in the celebration was undue punishment.
“We wanted to keep them separate,” Slemmer said.
But by that point, they were.
“I don’t see why he shouldn’t be able to come out,” Bibby said.
“The game is over. They’re off the court. There’s no chance of us crossing paths with them again.”
The skirmish deflected attention from what was Shadow Mountain’s absolute domina- tion. It won its four playoff games by 40, 68, 40 and 33 points. The Matadors have won 33 straight games and 51 against Arizona opponents. Their talent comes at teams in waves. If it’s not House, it’s Shaver or Jovan Blacksher or Darion Spotsville.
Shadow Mountain is so quick defensively that teams must feel as if they’re playing five on six. Forget 4A. Shadow Mountain might very well have won the 6A title this year.
It’s just too bad that a few words, an angry reaction and then an overreaction became so prominent.