The one-year experiment with instant replay will continue into 2003-04, league officials said Friday while noting that the revolutionary review policy showed referees had a high success rate.

Deputy commissioner Russ Granik said the replay was used 421 times in the regular season and the first three rounds of the playoffs and resulted in calls being overturned 13 times, or 3 percent. Twenty-eight of the times came at the end of games, but none decided the outcome.

"So for the vast majority, the referees do get them right," Granik said. "But we were very, very happy with (the system). It seemed to work very smoothly."

The competition committee also was pleased with the rule changes allowing certain forms of zone defense. According to Granik, the changes have curtailed isolation plays.