Kingsbury coach calls 110-2 loss to Whitehaven 'an embarrassment' that made players quit

Khari Thompson
Memphis Commercial Appeal

When the Rev. Althea Greene heard that the Whitehaven girls basketball team defeated Kingsbury 110-2 last month, she said it made her feel like she had played in the game and experienced the pain of the triple-digit beatdown herself. 

Greene, a school board member who represents Kingsbury's district and spent 38 years as a teacher in Shelby County, said that she could see how such a loss can affect players' self-esteem. 

"What would even make me want to put my uniform back on and even go out and play?" Greene asked. "Think about being on the other side of that, and if that were his team he would feel like no mercy was demonstrated. I think to say to your girls, ‘Hey I need you to go out there and play to win’ is one conversation, but to beat someone unmercifully is another conversation."

According to Kingsbury's website, the Falcons are 0-12 and have lost nine games by 45 or more. The Falcons have scored 10 points or less five times. They began the season with seven players after two transferred to Raleigh-Egypt. 

The Falcons have forfeited two of their last four games, including this week's rematch against the Tigers. Kingsbury coach Clarence Jones said that the loss demoralized his team and made what was an already small roster even smaller. 

"It was certainly an embarrassment. I was embarrassed. The girls were embarrassed," Jones said. "They actually stopped playing at the end of the first quarter in my opinion, my girls. Because the score was 36-0. And since that game, two of the seven girls have quit the team. One girl told me she was frustrated and just burnt out."

Jones said that the score was 68-1 at halftime and that both of Kingsbury's points came from free throws. He said that he asked for the mercy rule and that the officials ran the clock in the second half. He said that Whitehaven scored 30 points in the third quarter with the running clock before scoring 12 in the fourth quarter. 

"Hey man, he could have allowed my girls to just have a free path. Let them score. Let them score some points," Jones said. "It was obvious they were a much better team. They had the game won after the first quarter. So let the girls have a free drive to the basket and score some points. But no, that didn’t happen. You scored 110 points. At halftime you had 68, we had 1. There was no way we were going to come back."

The Shelby County Interscholastic Athletic Association declined an interview request about this game.  

Whitehaven coach Lynn Smith said that he thinks the frustration came from a number of blowout losses, not just the one against his team. 

"Those are not our intentions to embarrass anybody. I don’t think that was just a result of our game. They’ve been losing pretty handily all year from looking at their record," Smith said. "Scoring 7-8 points is not far off from scoring two. I think it's a compound effect, not just one game. I think it's how the season went for them from opening night. Unfortunately that's how the game is. Some years you have it, some years you don’t. I’m very sorry that they quit, but I don’t think it was in relation to that one game."

TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress said that there are more options than just the running clock to prevent such lopsided games. He said that coaches can mutually agree to shorten or even end a game. 

"If both coaches agreed to stop the game, the game would have been over and it would have been an official game," Childress said. "And even if they didn’t want to stop the game and get some of the younger kids in to participate they could say, ‘We’re not going to play eight-minute quarters, we’re going to play two-minute quarters.' They could have easily agreed to do some things like that that wouldn’t have made the score what it was."

Childress said that he doesn't see any good lesson that can be learned from a 100-plus point loss. 

 "It’s not about points on the scoreboard. Our responsibility is to make sure we’re teaching kids life lessons," Childress said. "Part of that is that you respect your opponent, and sportsmanship is a big part of that. It’s disappointing that the score ended up like that. We have to remember why we exist and that we’re transforming lives and teaching kids what they’re supposed to do in the future."