A Mobile city councilman is upset over Saturday’s controversial outcome in the Vigor-Eufaula girls “Sweet 16″ basketball game, and he’s calling for a halt to the Alabama High School Association’s girls’ basketball tournament until a wrong is righted.

“To be honest, and I know a lot people don’t want to do this because it’s taking it too far, but how about no one plays?” Councilman Cory Penn told AL.com on Tuesday, moments after speaking during the city council’s preconference meeting about his concerns over the Vigor girls losing a chance at an “Elite 8″ playoff berth because of a scoring error that cost them one point. Eufaula beat Vigor, 50-49 in overtime.

“If I was (Eufaula), I’d be honest, I’d let Vigor play,” Penn said. “If an error took place, I wouldn’t want to win that way. How about the other teams (left in the playoffs), say ‘this is not right.’ At a certain point, when we will stand for what is right for these young people?”

Penn said he contacted a representative with the Alabama High School Association, who admitted to him on Tuesday morning that an error was made during the fourth quarter of the basketball game, but that officials “cannot do anything about it” due to bylaws established through the National Federation of State High School Associations.

The AHSAA, in a statement, said “per NFHS rules, the score once the game is completed is the final score.”

The controversy stems from a scoring error that occurred with about six minutes left in the game. Vigor was up 39-33, following a made free throw.

Eufaula then goes on a run, and closes the gap with about 3:42 left, before the scoring suddenly changes on the NFSHA broadcast and confusion reigns inside the gymnasium over the actual score of the game.

The Vigor free throw was ultimately taken away and regulation ended in a 43-43 tie, instead of a 44-43 win for Vigor. Eufaula then won the game in overtime by one point.

“We have to tell these young people that you won a game, but we can’t change anything because we have rules on the books that says when the game ends, it’s the final score,” Penn said during his public remarks at the council meeting.

He said that youth in Mobile County are often criticized by the general public. But he said the Vigor girls’ basketball team represented a “dedicated ground of young people” who are student athletes, and who deserved to be treated fairly.

“Things like this have to change,” Penn said. “If you know people in these positions that can make changes, we need to use our influence and power to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Vigor High School, which is located in Prichard, is not in Penn’s council district. But Penn said Vigor is a part of the Mobile County School System, and that he has families within his district with students who attend Vigor.

“Anytime my constituents are hurting and are dealing with things that doesn’t affect city (government), I want to speak up and use my influence and voice to say that is wrong,” Penn said. “We have to stand with our youth. We see so much going on (negatively) in our community, and here we have these young people who are making the grades to play, and are dedicating their time to basketball and are doing it the right way.”

Other politicians are also addressing the controversial outcome, including state Rep. Napoleon Bracy, D-Prichard, who said in a Facebook post that what happened to Vigor “was wrong” and that they should be in the Elite 8.

Vigor coach Andrea Powell told AL.com on Tuesday morning that her team is still hurting from the error.

“They feel like they got robbed,” she said. “We feel like we did everything right to get there, and this is the thanks we get. That’s hard to explain to my team.”

Despite the circumstances surrounding her team’s loss, Powell said she and many of her players will be back in Montgomery on Wednesday to watch the Vigor boys team play Charles Henderson for the South Regional title at 10:45 a.m. The Eufaula girls will be on the floor in the game immediately prior to that game against Gulf Shores.

“They don’t even want to watch that game,” she said. “They feel like they should be there, but we want to support our boys as well.”

Penn said he wasn’t going to point fingers and accuse anyone directly for the mistake that was made during the basketball game. But he said the system should be changed to reverse the wrong outcome.

“These young people won the game,” Penn said, referring to Vigor. “We have video evidence that shows it. They should still be playing in the playoffs.”

Ben Thomas contributed to this report.