Columbia ends Ridgewood's three-year run at Bloomfield
BLOOMFIELD, April 1: Though it's not a fair description because Ridgewood wasn't in attendance at the seventh annual Bloomfield Academic Tournament of Excellence, the RHS Quiz Bowl team's three-year run at the tourney was ended by Columbia High School on Saturday with a 380-325 win over Millburn A in the BATE finals.
Columbia trailed throughout the final round, and was down 295-290 when the third round of the championship match came to a close. Millburn appeared to have the title firmly in hand - until CHS captain Robert Flaxman remembered something from the second round.
The three rounds of the final are set up in two formats. The first round is a five-minute timed round in which tossups are worth 10 points and bonuses five. Millburn led 45-20 at the end of this round. Round two is a round in which each team gets 15 questions which they get first crack at for twenty points. If the question is missed, the question goes to the other team - if they answer correctly, they pick up forty points. The third round is identical to the first, the exception being that the questions are worth twice as much. Millburn held a narrow 245-240 lead at the end of round two, and the teams traded 50 points in the third round, apparently giving Millburn the victory - until Flaxman piped up.
"The answer to one of the questions in our category round - European and Asian Geography - had been given as Mongolia. But the question asked about a country composed of six major islands and 13,662 smaller ones, so it was very obvious to me that the answer was wrong," Flaxman said. "I had said Indonesia, but I was unsure as to whether it was that or the Philippines, which was the answer Millburn had given after I had been deemed incorrect. I would have protested right then, but it would have been pretty bad for our morale if it had turned out to be the Philippines, so I just kept my mouth shut and waited to see if the 20 points would make a difference in the final score. If we had won, or lost by 25 or more, I wouldn't have said anything."
But with the final score a slim five-point margin, Flaxman knew that the answer to that question was now key. "So I asked Bloomfield's coach to check that answer, since it was obviously wrong. Needless to say, Millburn wasn't very happy with that." After the answer turned to be Indonesia, a judgment had to be reached. "They couldn't just throw it out - technically speaking, with the 20 points going to us, that's a 310-295 win. But on the other hand, they decided you couldn't just assume that everything would have happened exactly the same if I'd protested right then."
The decision reached by the Bloomfield advisor, after discussing it with the Millburn and Columbia advisors, was that the 20 points would be added to Columbia's score, putting them up 310-295, but that an additional five-minute round, with point values equal to those of the third round (20 points for tossups and 10 for bonuses), would be played. "We weren't very happy with this at the time," Flaxman said. "But looking back, I think it was the only fair thing for both teams." Columbia ended up outscoring Millburn 70-30 in the round, taking a 380-325 victory and winning not only the victor's trophy but five hundred dollars for the team.
The controversial finish left the Millburn team sour. "Mongolia was obviously way off, but [waiting until the end to protest] was bulls---," said the captain of Millburn's B team, which lost to the A team in the semi-finals.
"I had my reasons for waiting," Flaxman said. "Besides, we'd been getting screwed throughout the tournament." In Round Three, Columbia beat Millburn A 630-410 in a game marred by protests. "There was one math category where half the answers given on the paper were wrong. They protested one and we protested two... all three protests were eventually granted." The third round left Columbia angry for another reason. "After you answer the 50 point question, you get a chance at a 50-point bonus question. We'd been playing all day that you got the bonus question even if you answered the initial question on the rebound. Millburn's coach told us that on two occasions the Bloomfield coach had said that you couldn't get the bonus question if you answered the 50-pointer on the rebound. But then we get to the quarterfinals, and that situation arose again, and Livingston said they'd been told you could get the bonus after a rebound. We asked the Bloomfield coach and he told us the same thing."
Apparently this was not the only incidence of impropriety on behalf of Millburn A's coach. According to the captain of Millburn's B team, the B team and the A team got into a heated argument during their semifinal match after Millburn B wanted to protest a question and the coach wouldn't let them, ostensibly to allow the better Millburn team to make the finals.
Feeling cheated by Millburn, Columbia resolved to win the tournament. But the quarterfinals nearly ended their run. "We were the #1 seed after we beat Millburn in round three," said Flaxman. "But somehow, instead of playing the #8 seed, we ended up playing the #3 seed, Livingston." In a close game that Flaxman describes as "possibly the best game I've ever been involved in," Columbia pulled out a 540-470 win, largely on the strength of a "Speed Math" lightning round which garnered the team 150 points - 10 points per question and a huge 50-point bonus for getting all ten right. Flaxman credits Owen Baker, the team's second-most senior member and math specialist, with the effort. "He just sat there and basically rattled off all ten answers. It was huge, because we needed all ten. If we'd missed one I think we would have lost." The 150 points put Columbia ahead to stay.
As for beating Millburn twice, Flaxman calls it "a good feeling."
"It's a shame that they probably really hate us now, but after we found out that their coach had blatantly lied to us in the third round, not to mention the fact that to get to the finals we had to play the three and four seeds, while they got to play the seventh and eighth seeds, we weren't about to feel sympathy for them." This marks the second time in two years that Columbia has defeated Millburn in the finals of a tournament. The team won last year at Secaucus on the very last question. This year's Secaucus tournament will be held on April 15, and Flaxman is hoping for a similar showing. "I think after we beat them twice we proved we could play with anyone in the state," Flaxman said. "We're definitely capable of winning Secaucus again."
COLUMBIA'S RESULTS AT BATE
Round One: Columbia 960, Lyndhurst 260.
Round Two: Columbia 560, Governor Livingston A 430.
Round Three: Columbia 630, Millburn A 410.
Quarterfinals: #1 Columbia 540, #3 Livingston 470.
Semifinals: #1 Columbia 440, #4 Secaucus 320.
Finals: #1 Columbia 380, #2 Millburn A 325.