Running Up The Score and The Code

It has always been considered poor sportsmanship to “run up the score” against a clearly inferior opponent, or to add on unnecessary points against an opponent at the end of a game when the outcome is already determined.  The recent high school basketball game in which one team beat the other by 86 points brought this issue into the news again.  The Superintendent of Schools of the winning team apologized immediately and said that was not part of the philosophy of their sports program (this was a first round playoff game, so the opponent was from another district).  One problem the winning school had was they only had eight players, so some starters had to remain in the game.  But what do you think should have happened?  For example, the winning team could have stopped trying to score – and just run out the clock.  Or, the losing team’s coach could have decided to forfeit the game.  We think either of those choices would have been better than what did happen.  What do you think?