Chicago HS basketball player believes judge made mistake in 3-point contest

FOX 32 NEWS - It’s March Madness, Illinois style.

A high school basketball player from Chicago believes a judge's mistake kept him from a shot at becoming the state's three-point shooting champion.

“Everybody was excited, family, friends, Facebook, because they know, ‘Shawn the shooter,’” said Shawn’s mother Angela Marlow.

Shawn Marlow Junior is the kind of shooter who makes his parents proud. He's a 5-foot-9 point guard for Hubbard High School who specializes in shooting from downtown. Shawn was thrilled when won the chance to travel downstate this week for the state's three-point shootout. The first round was Thursday. His parents recorded it all, as Shawn appeared to drain eleven three pointers, just enough to move on to a tie-breaking shoot-off and possibly Saturday's finals.

But not so fast. The IHSA's three point judges only counted ten three pointers, and then refused to look at the family's video.

“That's not fair, he hit eleven, and you guys should have watched the video and it if it was a mistake, put him in at the next level,” mom said.

Shawn's mother says the only explanation she's received from the IHSA is that her son may have stepped on the three point line, thus cancelling out one of his shots.

“But if you go and look at the video, you'll see his foot was not on the line,” mom said.

An IHSA spokesperson told FOX 32 that video replays are not given consideration for basketball games,  so they aren't used for three point shootouts either.

"if he did make eleven," the IHSA  said, "we apologize, and are disappointed.... However, we also recognize that human error by our three-point judges can happen...." 

Shawn' mother says he was pretty upset at missing his chance to move on. But like all good long-range shooters, he's not going to let one missed shot get him down.

“Shawn loves ball. So regardless what anybody say or do, in his head, he's the best shooter in the state, anyway,” mom said.

Shawn’s mother says her son has his hopes set on someday making it to the NBA.