by Ben Warnick, Assistant Athletics Director

On a cold night on December 12th a typical women's basketball game started at the Peter Asiaf Fieldhouse in Brockton. Only this game would not end in your typical fashion. The 100 or so people in attendance witnessed a very rare occurrence in the game of basketball...at any level.

Massasoit CC was hosting perennial power Roxbury CC in a Region XXI Division III contest. It was the same Tigers' team that had cruised past the Warriors just over three weeks earlier, winning in Roxbury 73-59. In fact, the Tigers had not lost a regular season league game since 2008 --- a string of 84 consecutive victories.

Unfortunately for the visiting Tigers, that would all change.

The Warriors built a 16-point lead at halftime, up 40-24 at the break and appeared to be in complete control.

Roxbury, which had only traveled with seven players for the game, had one player foul out with eight minutes to go...in the first half. Quite the rarity in the game of college basketball.
Despite the first half cushion, the game was far from over.

In the second stanza, the visiting Tigers clawed their way back into the game, but also continued to foul. In total, the Warriors went to the free throw line 45 times, making 30 attempts (66.7 percent) compared to a 14 for 34 effort at the charity stripe by Roxbury (41.2 percent).

The Tigers had overcome the first half deficit and the two clubs were in a neck-and-neck battle over the final minutes of regulation. That's when things got interesting.

For the game a total of 57 fouls were whistled, 32 on Roxbury, 25 on Massasoit. Even with just a seven-foul disparity, the lack of depth on the Tigers proved to be costly.

In the final two minutes, a second player was disqualified for Roxbury, picking up her fifth foul. Then another, then another and then another.

Roxbury had fouled out five players in the final minute of the game. So it was down to two (Roxbury players) on five (Massasoit players). Amanda Hoover of Roxbury grabbed a rebound after a missed Massasoit free throw, raced down the court and drained a jump shot, with the Warriors clinging to a six-point lead.

The Tigers opted to stop the clock by fouling...again. One of the two remaining players, Katrina Matthews fouled Massasoit's Tianna Johnson with 10.6 seconds left. Amazingly the trend continued with the foul outs. Matthews, like her five other teammates was also disqualified from the game.

Roxbury was down to one player. One! So what's the protocol when that occurs?

The head official came to the scorer's table and realized Roxbury had no players remaining to enter the game. With only one girl left on the court, the official went to the center of the court, blew his whistle and called the game over.

Massasoit 74, Roxbury 68 -- FINAL

The last 10.6 seconds would not be played as Roxbury only had one player left. Amazing.
One of the many great things about sports, anything can happen.