An Indiana girls high school basketball team has been criticized for not ending a game before it became an embarrassing rout with a final score of 107-2. Some people have accused them of unsportsmanlike conduct saying there was no need to run up the score so massively. Unbeknown to me, many high schools have what's called a mercy rule, which pretty much allows for a sporting event to come to an early end when it's obvious one team has a commanding lead over the other. The idea is to prevent humiliating the losing team, but the Indiana High School Athletic Association doesn't have one.
So, the question is, should the girls in the winning team have eased off a bit once they realized their opponents were never going to win?
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Part of me wants to say yes, they should have! I mean, what was the need for them to continue scoring all the way to 107 when the other team barely made two points the entire length of the game? I can only imagine the humiliation of the other team and I don't even know how they were able to keep playing knowing that they were getting embarrasingly whipped.
But what kind of message would asking the opposing team to ease off send to the girls in the winning team? We all know there are winners and there are loser, not only in sports but in the game of life. Sometimes you lose miserably and other times you win grandiously. Either way, there's no such thing as a mercy rule in real life.
Image via Warren Long/flickr
