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 MURFREESBORO -- The TSSAA removed Riverdale and Smyrna from the high school girls basketball postseason on Monday following a report from a high school referee in charge of their District 7-AAA consolation game held Saturday where he said that both schools "played to lose the game." 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 officials met with administrators from both schools, and Childress noted both apologized for their teams and acknowledged the game was "not in the spirit of fair play." Smyrna principal Rick Powell said both he and Riverdale principal Tom Nolan asked to allow their teams to continue to play, but remove their respective coaches — Shawn Middleton at Smyrna and Cory Barrett at Riverdale — from the postseason. "I hate it for the kids because of the actions of the coaches," Powell said. "We pleaded with the TSSAA. We hated that they were penalized. But that was their decision." Smyrna (21-8) won the game 55-29 Saturday against Riverdale (22-8), a program that won its third state title in four years in March 2013 with a 58th straight win. 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. Childress said high school athletic programs are meant to teach students ethics, integrity, sportsmanship, morals and values. 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. By losing the consolation game, Riverdale was placed in the opposite side of the Region 4-AAA from defending state and national champion Blackman. "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.
– Two Tennessee high school girls' basketball teams have been chucked out of the playoffs after a farcical game that the referee says both teams tried to lose. According to the referee's report from the Saturday game between Riverdale and Smyrna, players "missed 12-16 free throws intentionally," "wouldn't get the ball across the half-court line to get a 10-second count or to make us call an over and back violation intentionally," and one player "looked at one of the officials and gave the official a 3-second signal, wanting him to call three seconds on her," the Daily News Journal reports. The ref says the last straw was when a Smyrna player was about to shoot at the wrong basket. Both teams were trying to avoid facing top-ranked Blackman High School in the tournament, reports USA Today. After the referee ordered both coaches not to make a "travesty or mockery of the game," Smyrna ended up winning, but the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association decided to pull both teams from the postseason, fine the schools $1,500 each, and put them on probation for a year, ESPN reports. Smyrna's principal tells the News Journal that he and his counterpart at Riverdale failed to convince the TSSAA to allow both teams to stay in the playoffs with both coaches suspended. (During the 2012 Olympics, eight badminton players went home early after playing to lose.)