It wasn't a big deduction (or really too much of anything). Had they thrown the basket they still would have received third. Here is why the announcers did it:
Cheerleading has different scoresheets and different ways of scoring everything everywhere. There really is no standardization outside of all of Jamfest companies using the same scoresheet and most of Varsity's companies using the same scoresheet. Worlds has a completely new and different scoresheet not used all year long. Only the highly intelligent readers of this board and coaches would be able to somewhat understand how these unused before scoresheets worked and that Panthers exposed a loophole and took advantage of it. To help give readers a reason as to why a 4 time champion would not repeat again they picked out the only discernible thing they could and focused in on it. The idea is giving casual watchers a way to relate to whats going on.
Why this is a major problem:
If I were a casual watcher and a high school cheerleader watching worlds I would think that a bobble in the stunt sequence doesn't matter and not throwing a basket must be the WORST deduction you can get. I wouldn't understand Panthers are taking huge advantage of a loophole in the scoresheet (they had a great routine as well, the loophole was the separator). Then I explain it to my parents and friends that is why Orange 'lost' (obviously wrong) and it starts to spread inconsistencies about cheerleading.
IF we are not going to have a universal scoring system that can be applied and slightly altered from allstar to high school to college (you know... the places all the other major sports participate in) then we need better more factual reasons and education on why teams did and placed how they did. (although it would be quite a bit easier if we just had a universal scoresheet)</rant>
