I was in a similar situation as the new L in a BV game in the late 90's. 51 seconds into a rivalry game, we had an intentional foul on a fast break layup, and all hell broke loose. It didn't matter that I had closed down and signaled intentional right away...players came off the benches, fans came out of the stands immediately. Fortunately, there were at least a half dozen or more officers in the building that surrounded the court and kept the fans from entering. Order was restored after several ejections and then another during the TF shots, and the game was fine after that.

To JRut's points, sometimes, they've already decided to fight before we show up, and there's nothing we can do to stop it.

Hopefully the officials will be mailed a check as well.

If I recall correctly, in the early 1960s, NYC's PSAL championships were played in closed gyms, with just the teams and refs present, but no spectators, because of such incidents.

Props to the head of the ihsaa!!
 

Headline from the article: IHSAA ends basketball seasons for Griffith, Hammond

Hat's off to the head of the IHSAA who made this decision. To be completely honest, I'm not sure it's the correct decision, but I respect it, and I admire his courage in canceling the rest of their seasons, including postseason. This will send a message that this stuff will not be tolerated.

Bobby Cox. He's been coming down HARD this year, he rescinded the eligibility of Eron Gordon (Eric Gordon's younger brother) when he tried to transfer to a prep school for "academic reasons". Gordon's parents took it to court and recently won but Cox has been waving the stick around this year for whatever reason. I think it has something to do with his coming down too soft on the Oregon-Davis fight and Ft. Wayne-Arsenal Tech football brawl. Not a great year for Indiana high school sports.

Two H.S. basketball seasons cancelled due to brawl
Prep Rally
Danielle Elliot 16 hours ago
The Indiana High School Athletic Association has cancelled the remainder of the boys' basketball seasons for two high schools that were involved in a massive brawl during a game on Saturday. The IHSAA released a statement explaining the decision on Tuesday.

The fight broke out in the first quarter of the game between Hammond and Griffith, when a Griffith player was fouled as he went up for a dunk. The foul sent him flying into the wall, head first. He collapsed and teammates and opponents at first rushed over to see if he was alright. Within seconds, they started shoving each other, and the benches cleared.


After meeting Tuesday, the IHSAA issued sanctions varying from sportsmanship education for the athletes to a post-season ban and a year-long probation for both teams.

Saturday's game has been ruled a double forfeit. All remaining regular season games are cancelled, at all levels, and both schools will have to pay a $500 fine for each away game left on its schedule – three for Griffith, two for Hammond.

Both teams are suspended from the state tournament. Hammond will still serve as the neutral site for a state sectional game, as scheduled, but will not collect any profits for doing so.

The coaches from each school will have to go to complete a course on proper teaching and modeling behavior, while the student athletes have to take courses on sportsmanship.

The brawl also results in a season-long probation next year.

Further penalties could result, as the police are currently reviewing tapes to attempt to identify any adults that joined the melee.

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Danielle Elliot is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact her at [email protected] or find her on Twitter.

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http://www.ihsaa.org/Portals/0/ihsaa...-15/021015.pdf

Here is the IHSAA statement mentioned in the article posted above.

Just found out today that the two schools in question sought a court injunction against the IHSAA decision today and the injunction was granted.

Both teams will be playing in the state tournament which starts tomorrow and have a chance to meet again on Monday if they win out.

It did look like the preliminary injunction was issued. I have not seen the written decision, if one, but I wonder what the judge was thinking? Maybe he thought the actions of IHSAA were arbitrary or capricious and not based in precedence of previous actions?

Notwithstanding the Courts, Where are the administrators in this? The schools (at least one) talked about suspensions but then the schools file injunctions?
The community should be embarrassed and the school district or the administration should cancel the program. Great educational message if they don't..

We have had similar situations here. It usually is a player or their parents who file for the injunction, not the school.

I assumed it would have been the parents as well but apparently the schools filed it jointly citing the 4- and 6-games the two teams missed. I guess the judge decided those were enough. The scary thing is that both Griffith and Hammond are 1 and 3 in the sectional and could easily meet in the sectional final.

Well, if they do meet up in the final, I'd expect that a) there will be a large security presence, b) it's possible that fans won't be allowed to attend, and c) the officials will have absolutely zero tolerance for anything that even looks like it might be BS.

That said, I wish the school administrators themselves would shut down the season on their own, rather than making the IHSAA do their dirty work for them.

Griffith made it to the 3A championship game this past Saturday. Wouldn't it figure.....

Griffith's bizarre run to 3A boys title game continues to draw scrutiny