It's been a rough year for the Arlington Knights. The 3A girls basketball team from Indianapolis, Ind., is 0-5, averages 17 points per game, and has lost games by scores of 77-16 and 68-14. The season reached its nadir last night, though, when Arlington fell to Bloomington South by a score of 107-2.
And yet, Bloomington South's head coach, Larry Winters, insists that his team was not trying to run up the score. From the Indianapolis Star:
Winters said he understands the public reaction but that no effort was made to embarrass Arlington or run up the score. He only had nine Panthers players for the game and rotated four new players in every four minutes.
"I didn't tell my girls to stop shooting because that would have been more embarrassing (to Arlington)," he said, noting Arlington was playing an aggressive 2-3 zone. "We were not trying to embarrass them or run up the score."
Yeah, we're going to have to disagree with that. There is nothing more embarrassing than losing 107-2. Arlington's coach, Ebony Jackson, was understandably upset:
"No it's not OK but (Bloomington South coach Larry Winters) will have to live with that," she said. "If that's how they want to carry themselves, that's fine. I'm focused on me and mine and we'll just keep going."
The game was so lopsided that the two schools will likely cancel their next scheduled game against each other to save themselves from being involved in another debacle like this one. Sadder still is the fact that Arlington's two points came from two separate trips to the free-throw line. Jackson better have them shooting plenty of free-throws during their next practice. Fifty percent from the line is unacceptable.