Players in the intramural sports basketball league are complaining about the mercy rule that was implemented at the beginning of the season, according to league sources.

All players were required to pay a $5 fee for their games and now some believe that their money has gone to waste, some players say.

“Good teams are getting punished in a sense,” L.A.X guard Salim Elam said. “We want to be able to finish our games and the mercy rule doesn’t allow us to do that.”

The teams that are on the other side of the blowouts are not complaining because no team wants to be “showed up” on any given night, team Hittas guard Cameron Bell said.

The mercy rule declares that if during any point a team is down by 35 or more points, then the game will be declared over, according to the intramural basketball rules section 7.4h.

“We had a lot of blowouts last quarter and our league is about sportsmanship not about who can score the most points in a game,” Assistant Coordinator of Intramural Sports Saed Gatson said. “Some players were upset with losing by so many points during the game and the mercy rule allows the game to end early, so that the losing team is not humiliated for the entire game.”

The mercy rule has been in effect three times this season, once by Knockdown, who defeating the Master Chefs 68-33 on April 20th, and twice by L.A.X, who forced the mercy rule to win a victory over Master Chefs on April 27th, and again on May 12.

“Team chemistry will be vital once we get to the playoffs and face the better teams of the league,” Master Chefs forward Nicolai Bunye said. “Cutting our games short does not help us build team chemistry and also cuts players’ minutes.”

Without the mercy rule being in effect last quarter, games were played until the end but the scores got out of hand with the worse score being 106-22, Gatson said.