Rule question - offensive player running out of bounds

We got called for a violation this weekend that I've never heard of in basketball.

Our ball, point guard has advanced the ball across halfcourt and we are getting into some offense. We have a player off the ball that is intending to cut from one short corner to the other short corner. Her defender is playing tough and jamming a straigt line cut across the court, so our girl goes a little out of bounds to get around the defender and get to the other short corner.

Ref blows the whistle and calls her for a violation, saying she can't purposely run out of bounds to avoid a defender. Is this a real rule in basketball? I have never heard this one before in my life. We play by NFHS rules.

The call was correct, although I don't see officials call it that much. "A player shall not leave the court for an unauthorized reason." I think the ref has to determine if the offensive player gained an advantage by doing so. In this case, they avoided fighting through the defender.

Thanks. I just did a google search and found it too. It was honestly the first time I've seen that called in a basketball game.

You learn something new everyday.

yep its a rule, not really called execpt by anal refs or kids that do it alot and force the refs to call it