Halftime score 36-3!

[Mark Padgett]

Final day of spring league. I'm working an 8th grade boys game and there's a 7th grade boys game on the court adjacent to mine. We get to halftime just a few seconds before they do. I happen to look over at their scoreboard and it shows a score of 36-3. I ask one of the refs - a buddy of mine - if that's the "real" score or is it a mistake. He says it's the actual score, and the team with three scored all their points on free throws! He said the other team really wasn't pouring it on, either. They're setting up most of their shots, but sometimes they just can't help going on a breakaway. He said he felt bad it was such a beating, but that's just the way the game was going.

During breaks, I would look over and it was obvious the leading team was far superior. Their coach apparently told them to slow it down because they won "only" 59-14. These games were the last ones of the day for both of us and we walked out to the parking lot together. He told me the losing team hit a three pointer in the final minute and you would have thought they won the NCAA title, the way they jumped around and congratulated the shooter. He said he didn't have the heart to T them up for coming off the bench onto the floor.

BTW - all three of my games were won by margins in the 20s. It was a good ending to the season. I worked the three games with three different partners, and one of them was even older than me. I didn't think that was possible.