MANNHEIM, Germany — Bamberg’s Racquel Davis was allowed to play in a Division II quarterfinal basketball game Friday against Naples despite having had been ejected from the previous day’s game after being hit with two technical fouls.
"Usually, something like this warrants a suspension for from one game to the whole season," said Sergio Jaquez, supervisor of the referees who worked the tournament.
Instead, Davis was back on the court Friday and scored 36 points in a 49-26 victory.
Bamberg went on to claim the Division II crown, and Davis was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
Davis suited up for the Naples game because the officials who worked Bamberg’s victory over Bitburg on Thursday changed their minds on the call after the game, according to DODDS-Europe athletic director Karen Seadore.
"The referees rescinded one of the fouls after the game," Seadore said Saturday. "They said it was an error. It was a kicked ball, not a technical."
Under basketball rules, unintentionally kicking the ball results in a turnover, not a foul.
Bamberg assistant coach Dwan McAllister backed Seadore’s version of the events.
"That [the overturned technical for kicking the ball] was entirely the referee’s decision," McAllister said. "I talked to him about it at the time, but it was entirely his decision."
Jaquez contradicted Seadore and McAllister on Sunday.
He said the game officials underwent no change of heart, but instead filed the required ejection report to Seadore after the game.
The game officials — Rechard Johnson and Jonathan Loney — "thought that she needed to go," Jaquez said of the Davis ejection. "She was very emotional."
Jaquez said Davis’ status for Friday’s game was in the hands of the school system on Thursday night and Friday morning.
"It’s up to [Seadore]," he said. "When we call two techs on a player, we submit a [postgame] report to school administrators, and they decide what to do."
Both technical fouls still remained registered in the official score book on Saturday, and Seadore said in a Monday telephone call that the lead referee, Johnson, had indeed submitted a report that Davis had been ejected for intentionally kicking the ball.
She said, however, she saw no reason to suspend Davis, because she had been told that the technical for kicking the ball had been overturned after the game.
"I talked to one of the officials on the phone after the game — I don’t remember which one — and he told me the call for kicking the ball had been rescinded," Seadore said.
Stars and Stripes was unable to reach either Johnson or Loney by press time Monday to confirm a call to Seadore.
However, the business of expunging a foul after a game mystified Jaquez.
"I don’t know how you go about rescinding a technical," he said Monday. "If I call a technical on you, I have to live with it. The foul shots were given. You can’t rescind a technical foul."
Jaquez said Davis drew her first technical for profanity.
"She was whining and crying," Bitburg parent Patty Schmidt said Saturday about the moments prior to Davis’ boot. "She kicked the ball at center court and it bounced high off the wall. There was no way it was accidental. We have it on tape."
Davis was ejected after the kick after scoring just five points, more than 20 fewer than her average.
Naples coach Scott Burgess, whose team was most severely impacted by the non-suspension of Davis, took a magnanimous line in a Monday e-mail.
"While it is unfortunate — the Lady Wildcats would have most likely enjoyed a different outcome against a Bamberg team without Ms. Davis… — we understand that mistakes happen in officiating," he wrote, "and consequently sometimes the end result of the game is modified."
