Baseball does it. Softball embraces it. Heck, even football, with its underlying macho ethos, will implement a mercy rule of sorts when it comes to a lopsided contest.

But basketball shows no such compassion, much to the consternation of many who follow Texas high school hoops.

The issue of a mercy rule in high school basketball received national attention last year, when Dallas Covenant destroyed Dallas Academy 100-0 in the most lopsided parochial battle since the Spanish Inquisition. The story even jumped from Sports to Section A when Ken Herman of the Austin American-Statesman explored the issue on the editorial page a couple of weeks ago.

And what, exactly, has gotten everyone so riled up when it comes hoops? How about 91-33, 83-22, 58-14. Those are three scores from the area’s Friday night basketball games.

And to call them “games” doesn’t properly characterize the contest. These type of matchups become exercises in institutionalized humiliation: no matter the best intentions of coaches eager to hold the score down, inherent discrepancies between certain teams will lead to blowouts.

And such blowouts will lead to ugly instances. Several weeks ago, Houston Yates routed Houston Lee 170-35 in a lopsided boys battle between the top-ranked team in Class 4A and one of its district foes. The matchup ended with a brawl, a result not too surprising considering the inate dangers of a meeting between a rout and the wounded pride of a 17-year-old.

If the UIL and private-school governing organizations such as TAPPS implemented a mandatory mercy rule in basketball games, such situations could be minimized. Say a team has a 30-point lead in the second half. With a mercy rule in place, the clock could run without pausing for free throws or dead balls.

The UIL allows such clock manipulation in football games, as Chap fans remember after Westlake opened up a 35-point halftime lead over Akins in a district contest in November. Sure, the scoreboard showed a 55-7 final, but the game didn’t become an embarrassment, and the Akins players didn’t have time to stew on any perceived humiliation. No personal fouls were called, and the teams exchanged hugs and handshakes instead of punches.