Was 113-point game bad sportsmanship?
Posted: February 2, 2006 5:27 pm
Was 113-point game bad sportsmanship?
'It was like picking on a handicapped person,' coach says of Prince's barrage
NEW YORK - Never heard of Epiphanny Prince? That’s about to change.
On Wednesday, the prep star scored 113 points in a game, breaking the national girls’ record of 105 by Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller and stirring debate about whether it was poor sportsmanship or good shooting.
Prince did it for Murry Bergtraum High School in a 137-32 romp over Brandeis High School. Her team is ranked No. 2 in the nation by USA Today, and the 5-foot-9 senior guard — headed to Rutgers next season — is among the best players in the country.
In the world of girls’ high school ball, routs are sometimes inevitable. There are wide gaps in talent levels, and a team can’t stall with a 30-second shot clock.
I know it first-hand — when I’m not working for The Associated Press, I coach a high school girls’ varsity team in New York City. Though my team plays in a different league than Murry Bergtraum, on Wednesday we faced a team that lost to those Lady Blazers by almost 50 points last week.
So Prince’s performance raises the question: Should she have been given the chance to break the record? Brandeis coach Vera Springer didn’t think so.
Bergtraum led 44-6 after the first quarter and 74-11 at halftime.
“It’s nothing against Epiphanny,” Springer told The New York Post. “I have great admiration for her. This was an adult decision. Why would you do this against a team like ours?”
Springer said her team, which has won only four league games this season and lost to Murry Bergtraum by 93 points earlier this season, stopped playing defense in the second half.
“She didn’t earn this,” Springer told the Post. “It was like picking on a handicapped person.”
Miller set the record for Riverside Poly in California against Riverside Norte Vista in 1982 and still didn’t play the entire game.
”My coach, Floyd Evans, took the same heat when he left me in. I could have played another two or three minutes,” Miller said. “That’s what this game’s all about, special moments in special situations. Instead of people getting their feelings hurt, they should pat her on the back.”
Prince’s previous high this season was 51 points, and she beat that by halftime.
“At the half, we thought she had a chance to break the record, so we just let her go,” her coach, Ed Grezinsky, said.
Prince hit an incredible 54 of 60 shots and had only one free throw. She made just four 3-pointers, scoring mostly on layups.
“After I scored 29 points in the first quarter, I didn’t think much of it,” Prince said. “After I had 58 points at the half, and especially after having in the 80s after the third quarter, I just decided to go for it.”
Grezinsky used 16 players and said he had four reserves on the court when Prince broke the record.
“It was exciting because the kids realized she had a chance at the record and they just kept feeding her the ball,” Grezinsky said.
In 12 years of coaching, I’ve been on both ends of blowouts, but nothing close to that. There are ways to prevent a blowout from becoming an embarrassment. Don’t throw the ball out of bounds or stop trying, but pull all the starters, work on passes, run down the shot clock or encourage everyone to shoot.
Two-time WNBA MVP Lisa Leslie scored 101 points in the first half for Morningside High School in Inglewood, Calif., against South Torrance in 1990, and the opposing coach refused to let his team play the second half.
When Kobe Bryant scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 22, he rallied his team from an 18-point third-quarter deficit. He needed to score 55 in the second half for his team to win.
Earlier in the season, Bryant had 62 points after three quarters in a blowout over the Dallas Mavericks. With the Lakers holding an insurmountable lead there was no need for coach Phil Jackson to put the 6-foot-6 star back into the game.
“It was a 30-point basketball game at that point and that’s not the spirit of the game,” Jackson said. “I did ask Kobe if he wanted to go back in and contend for the (franchise) record. He asked me what I thought, and I said, “It’s a 30-point game.”’
Bryant stayed on the bench.
On Wednesday, Prince kept shooting.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
'It was like picking on a handicapped person,' coach says of Prince's barrage
NEW YORK - Never heard of Epiphanny Prince? That’s about to change.
On Wednesday, the prep star scored 113 points in a game, breaking the national girls’ record of 105 by Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller and stirring debate about whether it was poor sportsmanship or good shooting.
Prince did it for Murry Bergtraum High School in a 137-32 romp over Brandeis High School. Her team is ranked No. 2 in the nation by USA Today, and the 5-foot-9 senior guard — headed to Rutgers next season — is among the best players in the country.
In the world of girls’ high school ball, routs are sometimes inevitable. There are wide gaps in talent levels, and a team can’t stall with a 30-second shot clock.
I know it first-hand — when I’m not working for The Associated Press, I coach a high school girls’ varsity team in New York City. Though my team plays in a different league than Murry Bergtraum, on Wednesday we faced a team that lost to those Lady Blazers by almost 50 points last week.
So Prince’s performance raises the question: Should she have been given the chance to break the record? Brandeis coach Vera Springer didn’t think so.
Bergtraum led 44-6 after the first quarter and 74-11 at halftime.
“It’s nothing against Epiphanny,” Springer told The New York Post. “I have great admiration for her. This was an adult decision. Why would you do this against a team like ours?”
Springer said her team, which has won only four league games this season and lost to Murry Bergtraum by 93 points earlier this season, stopped playing defense in the second half.
“She didn’t earn this,” Springer told the Post. “It was like picking on a handicapped person.”
Miller set the record for Riverside Poly in California against Riverside Norte Vista in 1982 and still didn’t play the entire game.
”My coach, Floyd Evans, took the same heat when he left me in. I could have played another two or three minutes,” Miller said. “That’s what this game’s all about, special moments in special situations. Instead of people getting their feelings hurt, they should pat her on the back.”
Prince’s previous high this season was 51 points, and she beat that by halftime.
“At the half, we thought she had a chance to break the record, so we just let her go,” her coach, Ed Grezinsky, said.
Prince hit an incredible 54 of 60 shots and had only one free throw. She made just four 3-pointers, scoring mostly on layups.
“After I scored 29 points in the first quarter, I didn’t think much of it,” Prince said. “After I had 58 points at the half, and especially after having in the 80s after the third quarter, I just decided to go for it.”
Grezinsky used 16 players and said he had four reserves on the court when Prince broke the record.
“It was exciting because the kids realized she had a chance at the record and they just kept feeding her the ball,” Grezinsky said.
In 12 years of coaching, I’ve been on both ends of blowouts, but nothing close to that. There are ways to prevent a blowout from becoming an embarrassment. Don’t throw the ball out of bounds or stop trying, but pull all the starters, work on passes, run down the shot clock or encourage everyone to shoot.
Two-time WNBA MVP Lisa Leslie scored 101 points in the first half for Morningside High School in Inglewood, Calif., against South Torrance in 1990, and the opposing coach refused to let his team play the second half.
When Kobe Bryant scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 22, he rallied his team from an 18-point third-quarter deficit. He needed to score 55 in the second half for his team to win.
Earlier in the season, Bryant had 62 points after three quarters in a blowout over the Dallas Mavericks. With the Lakers holding an insurmountable lead there was no need for coach Phil Jackson to put the 6-foot-6 star back into the game.
“It was a 30-point basketball game at that point and that’s not the spirit of the game,” Jackson said. “I did ask Kobe if he wanted to go back in and contend for the (franchise) record. He asked me what I thought, and I said, “It’s a 30-point game.”’
Bryant stayed on the bench.
On Wednesday, Prince kept shooting.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
I don't know if that is the most appropriate course of action either. The player doesn't deserved to be fouled and risk being hurt just because the coach is a jerk and has made a bad decision. Maybe pull the whole team off the court and forfeit, but there's no need to teach kids retaliation through dirty play.