Every day it occurs. Several times. The score of a game is reported differently in various sources. On Thursday, out of 94 games, 12 were reported with a variety of scores.
An example. Thursday’s Ridgefield v Columbia River boys game. WPAN has 67-41 (just a bare score); MaxPreps had 65-39 (with a line score and a play-by-play reporter who ends with a 67-39 score); Vancouver Columbian has 65-41 with a consistent boxscore and a detailed story written by a journalist actually at the game. I’m going with Vancouver Columbian. But they’re unofficial. It’s also two votes for 65 and two votes for 41.
It could be just typos. I do that too. That’s why I try to get multiple sources for a score. I discover a lot of my mistakes that way. But finding multiple scores for the same game occurs too often for just fat fingers. I’m thinking that most of the score differences stem from the score reporters. Sometimes I see a score revised from score A to score B. One team scorebook keeper is clobbering the report by other one. How hard can it be to report the score that was on the scoreboard when the game ended? Maybe the scoreboard failed in the last second and missed a three-pointer to change from 65-42 to 65-45. That actually happened this season. I saw it. But that is a first for me, after ~1500 high school basketball games seen.
HEY! Scorebook keepers! Do a little checking. Check with your opposite keeping book for the other team. Agree on the score to report. And then make sure the quarter scores, if you’re reporting those, add up to the final score. They should.