As the game started, the tension on their faces was evident. It was not the first time they had faced each other. It was the one game that would end the season for one team and advance the other to the second round of the playoffs. It was supposed to be a fair game. But it seemed as though the University of La Verne women’s basketball team would not get a fair chance.
When a team like La Verne goes out on the court to play, it goes out there to play its heart out, to play a good game of basketball.
The players do not try to play dirty. They do not try to take down players just to get them out of the game.
But it is hard to do this while playing a team that is trying to do just that. It is hard to do when the people paid to make sure the game is fair ignore the other team.
Wednesday night at Ducey Gymnasium at Claremont, it seemed as though the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women were playing dirty. I saw with my own eyes as Athena Andee Whalen tried to kick a La Verne player and the referee did nothing during the first half. Officially, the fouls were even at 19-18, but it is not always the number of fouls, but the timing.
The Leopards took the court like they do in every game, planning to win, but knowing that to win it takes skill, determination and hard work, not rough or dirty play.
I sat in the stands with coaches and sports fans sitting behind me in disbelief as atrocities were committed on the court and the referees did nothing.
The referee’s seemed to be picking on La Verne players all night. A technical foul, called on junior guard Kelly Perkins with 47 seconds left in the game led the Athenas to take the lead after the Leos had taken the lead by five points.
“It [the technical] is disappointing, you don’t want that to decide the game,” said head coach Julie Kline. But it did.
The call was undeserved by Perkins, who was motioning towards Kline when the foul was called. The referee told Kline that it was “for unprofessional manner of throwing the ball back.”
“Kelly played the best game all year,” said junior forward Katie Miner of her teammate.
Her teammates all say that Perkins did nothing wrong, that she was talking to her coach and not to the referee.
It is especially hard to take a loss like this. The Leopards should have won the game and they should be in St. Paul, Minn., right now preparing for a game against Bethel tomorrow.
Of all the teams that should have gone on in the playoffs, it should have been the Leopards. They went on the court and gave their all, played their hearts out and fought to overcome the roadblocks put in their way.
It is too bad that Claremont is going to be playing, but on Saturday afternoon I will be hoping that Bethel kicks some Athena butt.
