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I worked a girls varsity game last night, defending 4A (largest classification) state champs (and still loaded, though their best player was injured and only 7 of 10 players dressed because of injuries) vs a very overmatched 0-13 team. Surprisingly close for the first 5 or so very ugly minutes, then the better team steadily pulled away...56-17 at half, 78-25 after 3 quarters, no press in the 2nd half. In the 4th quarter the winning coach told her girls no more fast breaks, work only on half court set plays with multiple passes. At 98-30 with 1:17 remaining it was obvious they would break the century mark. Instead, coming out of a timeout she had her girls work on a half court offense that stressed inside/outside passing; they ran the clock out without ever taking another shot.
I thought it was a class coaching act because she kept her girls working hard on basics, good defense and offensive areas to improve on while not belittling the losing team (who played hard throughout, BTW) by just pulling back and dribbling/passing around the perimeter or running up the score (they could've easily scored 120-130 had they wanted to). It was neither a pretty game nor fun to work, but it could have been soooooooo much worse.
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