LOWER LAKE — Had Jim Salmina said and done nothing, the Lower Lake Trojans” 59-53 overtime win over the Willits Wolverines on Tuesday night would have stood up.
Lower Lake High School”s varsity girls” basketball coach said he couldn”t let that happen.
A scoring error in the third quarter that cost the league-leading Wolverines two points, an error Salmina confirmed after reviewing the game film multiple times on Wednesday, means that the Trojans will go down on the wrong end of a 44-42 regulation decision to Willits.
Salmina said it was the right thing to do after breaking the news to his team Wednesday afternoon prior to a pizza party that the team had scheduled before the Willits game.
“The toughest thing I”ve had to do as a coach,” Salmina said. “We really wanted to win the game, but not bad enough that we want to win it like that (because of a scoring error).”
Willits called a timeout in the third quarter to protest two points being taken off the scoreboard. The home (Lower Lake) and away (Willits) scorebooks had different totals. In all such disputes during high school games the home book is official and the game proceeded from that point.
“I didn”t even know there was a problem when they called the timeout,” Salmina said. “I thought it was a regular timeout and was talking with my players. After the game I found out what it was all about.”
Lower Lake”s Veronica Wilder hit a 3-pointer with two seconds left in regulation to knot the score at 42 and the Trojans went on to win in overtime. But as the game film proved on Wednesday, the Wolverines actually had 44 points when Wilder made her trey.
Salmina said he phoned the North Coast Section office Wednesday and was told it was up to the coaches and athletic directors of the two schools to sort things out.
“They said it was a local matter, that it came down to the integrity of those involved,” Salmina said. “That”s all they had to say to me. My integrity is worth a hell of a lot more than a win we might not deserve.”
Salmina reviewed the third quarter three times and discovered the Wolverines had scored 18 points instead of 16. Willits senior center Ceara Snyder was credited with only two points in the period when she actually had four.
“At first we thought the error was with another player, but we had the right total for her,” Salmina said.
Salmina phoned Carrie Stiles, the athletic director at Willits, to report the error and the news that Willits had indeed won the game 44-42 in regulation.
“She was good about it,” Salmina said. “She said mistakes happen.”
As a result of the scoring change, the Wolverines improve to 6-0 in the North standings and clinch the league title and an automatic berth in the sectional playoffs later this month. Lower Lake drops to 4-3 in league and 16-9 overall.
“It was all on me,” Salmina said. “I could have said nothing and that would have been that. But I don”t want my integrity ever questioned. It was an honest mistake and we took care of it. We did prove that we could play with a team of that caliber.”
Salmina said he had a tougher time breaking the news to his players than his players had receiving it.
“I broke down,” he said. “The kids were all great about it.”
In his first year with the Trojans after directing Kelseyville to many winning seasons during a long and successful coaching career at that school, Salmina is on the verge of leading Lower Lake to its best season since a 19-win campaign in 1997-98.
“Wins and losses are important but that”s not all sports is about,” Salmina said. “Are you going to be a better person?”
