MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) – A pair of Tennessee girls basketball high school teams have been pulled from the postseason for trying to lose a game to avoid the top-ranked team and improve their chances of advancing to the state tournament.
The programs at Riverdale, a state champion in 2013, and Smyrna were fined a total of $1,500 each Monday and also placed on probation for a year by the Tennessee Secondary School athletic Association.
TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress wrote Monday in letters to the schools’ principals that the teams “made a mockery” with intentional turnovers off various violations and missed free throws. The referee also reported he stopped play ordering the coaches not to make a travesty of the game with a Smyrna player about to shoot at the wrong basket.
“Now I think Riverdale was the first team to start, ‘let’s lose the game,’ but both teams obviously didn’t want to win and it really showed,” the referee wrote in his game report that was included in Childress’ letters.
Childress said high school athletic programs are meant to teach students ethics, integrity, sportsmanship, morals and values.