old rule question ( before 1980 )

[Altor]

Originally Posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

The rule was repealed at the high school level because it was decided that if a team wanted to hold the ball while being behind in the score or want to stay back on defense, it was only hurting itself and not its opponent.

This is what I never understood about the rule. Before the advent of the 3-point line, it would make more sense to force the defense (winning or losing) to "play ball" by coming out to guard and therefore open up the area near the goal a little. Either that, or tell the winning team that they couldn't just sit on their lead and they had to "play ball." But, making the losing team "play ball" just never made sense to me.