Things went a-foul Friday night in Potter

Other than the obvious task of it being my personal assignment, there had to be some other rhyme or reason for what transpired Friday evening in Potter.

In a contest that dragged on for what seemed like forever (actually, it was pretty darned close to two hours), the Potter-Dix girls opened their season with a 55-47 victory against visiting Sedgwick County, (Colo.).

But for now, we can set the score aside, because a quick peek inside the numbers reveals that those in attendance were sitting in on a record-book occasion.

First off, the contest spawned into lengthy game due to the high number of fouls.

A total of 71 fouls were called in the game. The host Coyotes were whistled for 39 personals, and Sedgwick 32.

All of which quickly leads to a parade at the foul line, and that’s where free-throw history was established.

P-D’s 39 personal fouls sent the Cougars to the line for 62 attempts, and vice versa, the Coyotes were able to flip 43 gratis tosses at the iron.

That’s 105 free-throw attempts, and a good reason to go snooping in the record books.

My first stop was on the Nebraska School Activities Association’s web site. The NSAA doesn’t keep track of such records, or at least it didn’t have a list compiled.

But the National Federation of High School does, and a search of the NFHS’s web site uncovered the all-time Top 10 girls high school basketball records for the combined number of free-throw attempts in a game by two teams.

And, when all is made official, that mark will rank second nationally in the all-time list.

The top mark belongs to the Feb. 6, 1996 game in Texas between Wolfe City (61 attempts) and Whitewright (53 tries). For the record, Whitewright won the game, 67-66.

Currently at number two is the 1994 contest between Homewood-Flossmoor and Providence-St. Mel. The Lady Vikings and Knights put up 102 shots between them. Two smaller southern Illinois schools, Waltonville and Elverado combined for 100 free throws on Feb. 1, 1989 as did two Minnesota schools, LeRoy-Ostrander and Rushford Peterson on Nov. 21, 1997.

Quite frankly, Friday’s game — which forced the start of the boys’ game back to 9:20 p.m. — could have threatened the top mark of 114 had the whistle been blown on a few more occasions.

But, that might also be said of any game on the top 10 list – for there come points in a game where the referees simply have to let things play out, lest the participants play deep into the night.

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Speaking of free throws, it’s likely a lot of teams are going to be working on their free-throw shooting after looking at the Week One box scores.

Sedgwick alone made just 33 of its 62 shots in the loss to Potter-Dix, which went a mind-boggling 18 of 43.

But no one else will be kicking itself more than the Sidney boys team, following Saturday’s 53-50 overtime loss to Gering.

The Red Raiders made just 7 of 23 free throws, or a meager 30.4 percent, with all of the attempts coming in regulation.

Had SHS knocked down just one more of those tries from the charity stripe, Erik Kohl’s team would be 2-1 heading into Friday’s road game at Chase County. Instead, the team will be spending time trying to improve on last weekend’s shortcoming.

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To everyone bickering about Northern Illinois’ football team crashing the Bowl Championship Series party against Florida State in the Jan. 1 Orange Bowl.

Please take a chill pill, for it wasn’t long ago that Boise State was being pushed down everyone’s throats.

Yes, the Broncos have played some quality competition since their unbeaten 2008 regular season, but so has NIU.

In 2008, the Huskies went to Knoxville and lost 13-9 to a then-decent Tennessee program, then in 2009 split with two Big Ten squads, losing 28-20 in Madison to a Wisconsin team that went 10-3, and then beat Purdue.

NIU is also adding Arkansas to its 2014 schedule, and has contracted a home-and-home series with Wyoming (2015-16).

Still, oddsmakers have made the Seminoles a two-touchdown favorite. Even so, Northern has earned its right to see if it fits in with some of the higher-ups.