This season, Hampton (Va.) didn't allow an opponent a field goal and defeated another by 100 points.

Tom Mummert, in his first year as head basketball coach at Kennedy (Burien, Wash.) after 11 years as an assistant, was recently suspended for two games by his school and got a reprimand from his school's league after his girls defeated Evergreen (Vancouver, Wash.) 112-16.

Routs are frequently a part of high school basketball, particularly with girls, which have led several states to adopt mercy rules.

Montana is the latest. Starting next season, if a Montana team leads its opponent by 40 or more points in the second half, the clock will continue running except for timeouts and injuries.

Anna Jackson, a longtime Murrah (Jackson, Miss.) girls basketball coach, has been on both sides of routs and says the solution of a running clock might be worse than the problem of blowouts. Last week, Murrah, ranked No. 3 in USA TODAY's Super 25 rankings, defeated Grenada 71-40.

"Sometimes, (both coaches) agree to run the clock if the scores are really outrageous," she said. "For me, a rout gives my young players an opportunity to play and get better. If we had a mercy rule at a lot of our games, the game would be over in 30 minutes and people are not going to pay $5 for a game that lasts 30 minutes."

Al Aldridge, coach at Prairie (Vancouver, Wash.), has more than 600 wins but not too many lopsided losses. His team is ranked No. 11 in the Super 25.

"I probably would not be in favor of changing (to a mercy rule) to keep the purity of the game," Aldridge said. "It's really hard to tell kids not to play defense. It's hard to tell kids not to make shots or to miss free throws intentionally. For a program that prides itself on defense, to all of a sudden quit playing defense takes away what we're trying to coach."

Aldridge says his team's attempts to avoid routs don't usually work. He has one defense where all five defenders keep a foot in the paint, allowing opponents to take outside shots at will.

"Teams miss those wide-open looks, and that can be frustrating as well."

Some coaches on the other side of the rout don't necessarily agree a mercy rule is positive, including Percy Gregory, whose Kecoughtan (Hampton, Va.) team was defeated by Hampton 108-8 on Jan. 4.

"I would say let the girls play," Gregory said. "There is some value, some fundamental value, that a team can get out of a loss like that. At some point, you treat it as a practice."

Gregory said a better answer would be for the coach on the plus side of a rout to change tactics.

"If you're up by a lot late in the game, why are you still running a full-court press? Why not just drop back into a zone?" Gregory said.