Quote:
Originally Posted by Corndog89
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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Reminds me very much of a game I had 2-3 years ago that had a different outcome. One team was getting outplayed from start to finish and the stronger team was still playing hard when, with about 2 minutes to go and the score 98 to something a lot less, the visiting/loosing team calls a timeout.
The visiting coach gave them a challenge to just hold the ball for the rest of the game and not let the other team get a chance to make 100.
They were doing a pretty good job of it for about 75 seconds when a pass got picked off out top...off the other way with the guy who threw the pass in chase. As the shooter is going up for shot, he gets hit hard (and makes the shot). Unfortunately, he didn't get up for about 5 minutes...he did eventually get up and walk off.
We counted the bucket, shot 2 FT for the intentional (excessive contact...the defender was actually going for the ball but just overly aggressive).
1 of 2 FTs made...final score...101-3x.
I'm guessing that it was the last time the winning team played a blowout like that (and since they're really good, they've probably been in several).