64-4

[Mark Padgett]

8th grade boys game last night and the final was 64-4. It was 44-2 at halftime. There's no mercy rule in this league, so we never had running clock, plus the winning team could still press all the way until the end, although they took the press off when they initially got up by about 20. Most of the second half, the winning coach had his team pull back on fast breaks and set up. Also, for about the final 4 minutes, he told them to shoot only threes and to pass the ball at least 3 times in the front court before a shot.

He made sure his bench got as much, if not more, playing time as his starters.

After the game, he told the other teams's kids "You guys played hard the whole game" as he shook all their hands.

Compared to some of the stories about routs that have been here recently, this one seemed like an example of fairly decent sportsmanship.

Here's something funny for you local Portland area guys. In my earlier game, it was Tualatin vs. Lake Oswego. Tualatin had an inbound play named "laker". Every time they called it, the LO boys would just look at each other. For you out of towners, Lake Oswego HS is the "Lakers" and all their lower teams use the same nickname.