Shiprock-Aztec Boys Basketball Extras

Shaquille O'Neal has provided consistent rhetoric that claims his size skews how the referees call his games.

Shaq says he gets called for fouls and doesn't get to the free throw line as often as he should, penalized by his own enormous girth.

Granted, the Big Aristotle left the Lakers, Heat and Suns on bad terms, so maybe he's a bit of a whiner.

Not so for Matt Hegarty, who laughed with an official after picking up a technical foul for pushing the ball to the floor after a made basket and picking up a technical foul.

Either he earned my sympathy or there was a bit of a Shaq effect during Friday's games.

He got hacked at the end of the second quarter, a karate chop to the right forearm, but didn't get a call as he almost made the five-foot jump shot.

Earlier, he picked up a foul while double teaming a Shiprock player. There was a little contact, but it came from Cody Douglas, not Hegarty.

I forgot to ask why, but Aztec chose to use Brycson King for the opening tipoff instead of Hegarty.

King, Aztec's QB, is six feet tall and athletic, but gives up five inches to his offensive tackle. Colby Nahkai won the tip, though Shiprock promptly turned the ball over.

The other curious aspect of tonight's game: The referees referred to Aztec's uniforms as red.

As in, 'Red ball!' during the inbounds plays. The Tigers wore their road orange jerseys.

One last Hegarty-related thought. He finished 2-of-8 from the field and missed a lot of eight footers.

The two makes came on a play that coach John Feil referred to as Triple Stack without shame. Everyone in the gym knew what was coming on those plays. The few times the Tigers ran it and lobbed it to Hegarty, who leaped above the crowd, grabbed the ball and put it in the net, it was successful.

The play also earned Douglas a bizarre technical foul. I didn't get why. Douglas got warned for some type of contact while jockeying for another Triple Stack attempt, perhaps holding, and then teed up seconds later for the same offense.

The referee seemed to indicate he called it on a repeat offense, saying something like, 'I just told you not to do that.'

Some extra stats from Friday night's game (Aztec is listed on the left):

Turnovers:   A - 22, S - 16
2-point FG: 15-36, 10-27
3-point FG: 2-12, 6-20
R: 37, 27
FT: 8-14, 15-22
A: 7, 11
F: 16, 13

Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher