Before Being Accused Of Running Up Score, HS Coach Has Perfectly Acceptable Reason His Team Won By 107

Every high school season, stories about lopsided beatings occasionally make sports news because who doesn’t love marveling at a group of young competitors getting absolutely decimated by an opponent.

This week, the Gilmour Academy girls basketball team of Cleveland, Ohio defeated Northeast Ohio College Prep’s girls basketball team in a playoff game. The score was 108-1. Obviously, the gaudy score is the first to jump out but the second most interesting fact in this story is PLAYOFF GAME. Northeast Ohio College Prep is a playoff team. A playoff team that score one point.

Now, naturally, people are going to get pissed and accuse the coach of “running up the score.” In this case, Gilmour Academy coach Bob Beutel was ready to field such questions and have, what I feel, is an absolutely inarguable response.

Beutel told the Cleveland Plain Dealer “Our intent was to not run anything up, and we took steps to not disrespect our opponent. They went 0-for-28 from the field and 1-for-4 from the free-throw line. We let them shoot.”

To make matters worse, Beutel told the Dealer “he began subbing in junior-varsity players moments into the first quarter.” So the varsity girls couldn’t even score on the JV team.

It’s hard to argue with numbers. Northeast Prep didn’t make a single shot. Even uncontested, they only hit one out of four free throws. Again, THEY’RE A PLAYOFF TEAM. Unless this is a league where every team makes the playoffs — and if that’s the case, the score shouldn’t even come into question — there’s absolutely no way to defend a team that HIT ZERO SHOTS.

[via GQ]