Indiana girls basketball team routs foe 107-2, sparking sportsmanship outrage

Prep Rally

December 12, 2012 at 1:15 p.m.

Ever since Dallas (Texas) Covenant School's girls basketball team routed Dallas (Texas) Academy's girls program 100-0 in 2009, the round-numbered rout has served as the benchmark for brutal blowouts. It was even obliquely cited in an article about another girls hoops blowout on Monday right here at Prep Rally.

Bloomington South continued to run a traditional offensive set in a 107-2 win — BSouthLadyHoops.com

Now Covenant may finally be off the sportsmanship hook, thanks to an even more absurd act of poor sportsmanship in Indiana. On Tuesday night, Bloomington (Ind.) South High's girls basketball squad topped Arlington (Ind.) High's team by a score of 107-2.

According to the Indianapolis Star, Arlington hit a solitary free throw in both the second and third period. All the rest of the scoring came from Bloomington South, with the team's coach encouraging his players to keep shooting as the points piled up.

"I didn't tell my girls to stop shooting because that would have been more embarrassing [to Arlington]," Bloomington South coach Larry Winters told the Star. "We were not trying to embarrass them or run up the score."

Even if Bloomington wasn't trying to run up the score, it did a heck of a good job doing so. The team probably should have had an idea that it would probably succeed in scoring a lot of points, too, with Arlington averaging just 17 points per contest entering the game. Arlington had lost 23 consecutive games entering Tuesday's matchup and was 0-5 this season, the first in which new coach Ebony Jackson has taken the helm of the program.

For her part, Jackson made it clear that she felt Winters could have used more restraint in deploying his players.

The scoreboard following Bloomington South's victory — Twitter

"No it's not OK but [Bloomington South coach Larry Winters] will have to live with that," she told the Star. "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."

In the meantime, the criticism for Winters has been both fast and furious. As soon as the score was released on Twitter on Tuesday night by the Star's high school sports scores feed it elicited a series of critiques. Some questioned how a score like 107-2 was even possible within the confines of a high school game. Others were more caustic toward the Bloomington South team and staff.

One Twitter user even offered the following assessment:

"This is disgraceful & a blow 2the integrity of [Indiana high school basketball]."

Still, Jackson told the Star that she wasn't upset with Winters for the sheer reason that she was more focused on helping her team move forward, which will be all the more difficult in the aftermath of such a crushing loss.

"It's basketball," said Jackson, who said she didn't confront Winters after the game because she didn't think it would be respectful and was only concerned about her team. "You see where you are and go out there and play. I'm not mad. [Winters] is running a great program. We'll go back to the drawing board and I'll nurture my players.
"It's been a trying season, a tough season [but] we'll continue to get better and better. We're about growth and improvement. That's where the rewards come. You've got to start somewhere and I'm blessed."

Want more on the best stories in high school sports? Visit RivalsHigh or connect with Prep Rally on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

More sports news from the Yahoo! Sports Minute: