When is a victory something you don’t take pride in, but something you ought to apologize for? For East Bridgewater (Mass.) High School, the tipping point was an 86-point victory over Madison Park in the first round of a state sectional girls’ basketball tournament.

Blowouts happen all the time in high school sports, though rarely with a near-three-figure point differential. But what prompted East Bridgewater Superintendent of Schools Elizabeth Legault to apologize for the margin of victory was the way in which the East Bridgewater Vikings ran up a lead, going up 24-0 in the first quarter … and then continued to push, long after the outcome was no longer in doubt.

Per local media reports, the Vikings kept many of their starters in the game until late, kept up the full-court press into the third quarter, and even tossed daggers like pulling up for a three-point shot at the end of the third quarter to go up 70-4.

Legault called the game “an unfortunate situation.” She added, “This is not a reflection of our student body or our athletic program.” Local media attempted to speak with East Bridgewater coach Andrew MacDonald but were not permitted to do so.

“The two teams were ready and excited for playoffs,” Legault said, “and the two schools were not matched up as well as they should be it seemed.” East Bridgewater was seeded fifth, and Madison Park, which had gone 10-10 in the regular season, was seeded 12th.

So. Should East Bridgewater have eased off the throttle when it went up 24-0 in the first quarter, or 48-4 at the half? Or should it have gone ahead and pushed to hang a hundred on Madison Park? Have your say … and, maybe just for a second, think about how you’d handle being on the “7” side of a 93-7 beatdown.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.

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