Rule changes in effect for NAIA women?s basketball

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel has adopted a number of rule changes for women?s basketball effective with the current season. The changes also impact the NAIA and affect Tabor College women?s basketball games this season.

Perhaps most noticeable is the switch to four, 10-minute quarters. Games previously were played in two, 20-minute halves.

?We were the only game that had halves,??Tabor coach Shawn Reed said. ?High school plays quarters, NBA plays quarters, international plays quarters, so we voted to go to quarters and men did not.?

Additional rule changes include the following:

? Upon reaching the fifth team foul in each quarter, teams will now shoot two free throws, doing away with the former one-and-one bonus secured on the seventh team foul of each half.

? In the final 59.9 seconds of play, teams may advance the ball to frontcourt following a timeout called after a basket is made, or after securing a rebound, or possession change.

? Teams will not be awarded a new 10-second backcourt count when: the defense deflects the ball out of bounds, in the case of a held ball with possession arrow favoring the team on offense, and when a technical foul is called on the offensive team in the backcourt. By calling timeout, teams may reset the count to 10 seconds.

? Teams will also have fewer timeouts. Reed said he has two 60-second timeouts and three 30-second timeouts available instead of four and two; if he does not use one of the 30-second timeouts in the first half, he will lose it.

?It definitely feels different as a coach. It feels like I have less control, so you have to do a lot more in practice to get everybody ready to go because I can?t stop the game all the time.?

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