Texas highschool basketball, 170-35

[jimmy olsen]

A lovely display of sportsmanship.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/hso/6800394.html

Yates sets Texas scoring record in 170-35 win
Lions break 18-year-old record in fight-marred victory over Lee
By JENNY DIAL
Houston Chronicle
Jan. 5, 2010, 11:06PM

Yates head coach Greg Wise said of his third-stringers: "They work really hard in practice, and when they go in, they deserve the chance to play hard and compete, too."

BASKETBALL POLL
What do you think of Yates' 170-35 win over Lee?
(Poll closes: Jan 12 at 11:59 p.m.)
   
Impressive
40%
Excessive
60%

The Yates High School boys basketball team set a state record and set itself up for controversy Tuesday night at Butler Fieldhouse.

The Lions beat Lee High School 170-35, setting the single-game state scoring record. Hardin-Jefferson had owned the record of 166 points since 1992.

But the Lions' brush with history was marred by a second-half scuffle and questions of sportsmanship.

In the third quarter, a fight erupted after an intentional foul was called on a Lee player. After breaking up the fight, the referees told both coaches they would have to play just five players the remainder of the game. The other players for both teams spent the rest of the second half sitting in the stands.

"I feel very disrespected right now," Lee coach Jacques Armant said. "I don't understand why Yates just kept scoring and pressing when they were up so much. These are kids. It isn't good to do that to other young men."

Yates, which led 100-12 at halftime, is 14-0 this season and has won 39 consecutive games. The 100 points in the first half is also a state record and the second-most ever in a boys high school basketball game.

It was the eighth time this season Yates scored more than 100 points and the sixth time the Lions won by more than 60 . It was the first time this season Yates' margin of victory topped 100.

While the large margins of victory are turning heads, Yates coach Greg Wise said he isn't worried about his team's reputation.
Defending state champs

Last season, the Lions went 34-1 on the way to winning the Class 4A state championship. The one loss was a 78-76 decision to Elsik in the Houston Independent School District Tournament. That night, Wise said he let his kids down by telling them to put on the brakes.

"We practice running, pressing, trapping every day," he said. "If we get to a game and I tell them not to do what we do in practice, I am not coaching well. I am not leaving my starters in the whole game. We have 15 guys, and all 15 play."

Wise said he shouldn't have to tell his "third line" they can't go out and score.

"They work really hard in practice, and when they go in, they deserve the chance to play hard and compete, too," Wise said. "We are looking for another state championship, and we can't get that unless we are continuing to get better and perfect our game. We aren't scoring on other teams out of disrespect."

Despite Wise's intentions, Armant said other teams simply don't want to play Yates.

"No coach wants to put his kids in a position to be embarrassed," he said. "We have great kids on our team, hard workers, and I am proud that they played the whole game tonight, but you can see how coaches are hesitant to put their kids on the floor with a team that is going to score on them that way."
National record: 211

The Lions could be on par to break more records this season. Yates is averaging 119 points per game. The national record is 114.6. Yates has reached the 100-point mark in three consecutive games. The national record for consecutive 100-point games is 14. The national single-game scoring record is 211 set by De Quincy (La.) Grand Avenue in 1964.

The Lions are ranked No. 2 in the nation by MaxPreps and No. 5 by ESPN. They just returned from trips to Hawaii and Alabama for national tournaments.

"We know what people say and some of it is negative, but I believe that Houston is an area that is great for boys basketball, and I believe we have been on the national stage this year and showed that there is a lot of good basketball here," Wise said. "I think that is good for our team, our community and the Houston area."

[Neil]

What a bunch of pussies.  Lee should have taken a few knees.

[Monoriu]

As long as they played by the rules, what's wrong with scoring as high as possible? 

[crazy canuck]

100 points in a half!

Wow.  That is simply amazing.  The other team must have been handing them the ball off the press.

[crazy canuck]

As long as they played by the rules, what's wrong with scoring as high as possible?

Normally when a team is up by a lot it is considered good sportsmenship not to press and to simply fall back and play normal half court defence.

[Monoriu]

As long as they played by the rules, what's wrong with scoring as high as possible?

Normally when a team is up by a lot it is considered good sportsmenship not to press and to simply fall back and play normal half court defence.

I thought it should be good sportsmenship to always try your best no matter whether you are losing or winning?  If I pay for a chance to watch a game, I probably won't want a team to fold their arms when they are up a lot.  If I watch the English premiership football, and see a team just stay on their side of the field when they're up 4-0 at half time, I'm going to be mightily pissed. 

[Neil]

As long as they played by the rules, what's wrong with scoring as high as possible?

Normally when a team is up by a lot it is considered good sportsmenship not to press and to simply fall back and play normal half court defence.

I thought it should be good sportsmenship to always try your best no matter whether you are losing or winning?  If I pay for a chance to watch a game, I probably won't want a team to fold their arms when they are up a lot.  If I watch the English premiership football, and see a team just stay on their side of the field when they're up 4-0 at half time, I'm going to be mightily pissed.

Your culture is less developed than ours.

[Eddie Teach]

I thought it should be good sportsmenship to always try your best no matter whether you are losing or winning?  If I pay for a chance to watch a game, I probably won't want a team to fold their arms when they are up a lot.  If I watch the English premiership football, and see a team just stay on their side of the field when they're up 4-0 at half time, I'm going to be mightily pissed.

You probably wouldn't pay good money to watch a premier league team play against a team in wheelchairs though.

[Berkut]

My rule of thumb is that if I am officiating a game and you are up by a bunch and still pressing, you had better be very clean at it.

[sbr]

My rule of thumb is that if I am officiating a game and you are up by a bunch and still pressing, you had better be very clean at it.

You should have seen this official at my 8th grade daughter's basketball game tonight; she was the worst official I have ever seen.  She was an absolute control freak, she made every call and when her partner (another gal)  tried to make a call the little bull-dyke would run in and overturn her, no matter who had the better position to see the play; she was also yelling at everyone:her partner, the crowd, the coaches.  My daughter's team went up a lot early-like 18-0-and I think this gal was trying to get the game to even out.  She was making ridiculous calls on "our" team and ignoring the other team taking 5-6 steps with the ball and never leaving the key. 

The end of the game was the best, we were up by 35 points, 46-11, with about a minute left and the ball went out of bounds.  The rule is that with a 30 point lead the clock never stops, except on timeouts or foul shots; she started screaming at the timekeeper (the other team's 'B' coach) to stop the clock.  Of course he calmly explains the rule and allows the clock run out; she then goes ballistic.  She starts screaming at him that he should have explained the rules to her before the game and that as the official it is her call when the clock stops.  She then asks for the school principal to come to the gym so she can complain to him and then pre-preemptively ejects this guy from his team's game which started next.  I have never seen anything like it.

[sbr]

As to the OP, you can't ask your players to stop shooting but pressing and shooting 3 pointers is a bit much at that point.  I assume if they are that good the third string sees some regular action, so I am not all that worked up about them.

[DisturbedPervert]

I bet their tears were delicious

[Sophie Scholl]

I thought it should be good sportsmenship to always try your best no matter whether you are losing or winning?  If I pay for a chance to watch a game, I probably won't want a team to fold their arms when they are up a lot.  If I watch the English premiership football, and see a team just stay on their side of the field when they're up 4-0 at half time, I'm going to be mightily pissed.

This may be a valid position for Professional Sports.  This however, was a high school basketball game.  One would think that at that level it should be more about fair play and sportsmanship.

[Berkut]

My rule of thumb is that if I am officiating a game and you are up by a bunch and still pressing, you had better be very clean at it.

You should have seen this official at my 8th grade daughter's basketball game tonight;

You don't have to say anything else....<shudder>

[Admiral Yi]

I thought it should be good sportsmenship to always try your best no matter whether you are losing or winning?  If I pay for a chance to watch a game, I probably won't want a team to fold their arms when they are up a lot.  If I watch the English premiership football, and see a team just stay on their side of the field when they're up 4-0 at half time, I'm going to be mightily pissed.

This is more like 12-0.