Basket-brawl: High school game ends in a massive, face off and shoving match – one student even smacks down a ref! [Video]

by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton | February 2, 2015 1:59 pm

Well, at least it didn’t turn into a bloody, punching free-for-all[1] as these games sometimes do… pulling in students and parents alike. It’s still immature and unprofessional though. Two players got in each other’s faces and a shoving match ensued with plenty of name calling and foul language. A ref appears to have been smacked down onto the floor as well. Unacceptable behavior, no matter the age – these are very big boys. Even the players admit they were out of line on this one. Lot’s of drama, but no real fists flew. Since when did Highschool basketball games get to be so tense? More than enough testosterone floating around in that gym.

A heated competition between two New York basketball teams boiled over into an all-out
brawl on the court Saturday night.

From the Daily Mail:

A heated competition between two New York basketball teams boiled over into an all-out brawl on the court Saturday night.

Now both schools are awaiting the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference to decide whether there will be disciplinary action.

The fight began as soon as the buzzer went off on Iona’s 68-61 victory over St. Peter’s and a pair of players who’s been covering one another got even more up in each other’s faces.

Players even had to separate Iona’s A.J. English and St. Peter’s Desi Washington as the pair were shoving and yelling at each other.

Things got so out of control English can even be seen smacking a game official to the ground.

As the Daily News[2] reported, St. Peter’s head coach John Dunne said tempers came from an extremely hard fought match[3].

‘It is what it is. You see that all the time,’ he said. ‘You see that on the playgrounds. No punches were thrown. Everyone kept their cool as far as that was concerned, so it was just a whole lot of nothing really.’

Iona’s coach, Tim Cluess said both teams needed to work on being more mature.

‘We are at fault, but so was the other team and both teams need to grow from this and understand this is a basketball game,’ he said. ‘You compete your hardest, but you don’t act out of character. You never take it beyond what it should be and both teams were wrong.’

Iona’s David Laury was also pulled from the game after arguing with Dominique from the side of the lane.

‘(Dominique) said some things, some foul language, and I told him don’t talk to me like that,’ Laury told reporters. ‘That’s pretty much it. It was just that I was so close to his face that the ref called a tech. (Cluess) told me I’ve got to know better than to do things like that, especially late in the game. I respect what he did in keeping me out until overtime as he should have done. I can’t mess up and have us lose a game at home because someone called me a name. People are going to do that all the time.’

‘I tell our guys no matter what’s going on in the game, no matter what our opponents are saying, you have to keep your head and be above it,’ Cluess said. ‘I didn’t think David was able to stay above it. He needed to learn a lesson and if we were going to lose the game we were going to lose the game.’

Someone may get suspended over this. You lose your cool, you pay the price. Basketball is supposed to showcase skill and cultivate teamwork, not alpha swaggering matches. You play your best, behave yourself and make your team and school proud. That’s always been the code for players. Let the stupid stuff go – it just shows how small the other person is. Make them eat it by beating the pants off them, not by yelling in each other’s faces and shoving for effect. Smacking a ref – not okay. Hope the ref didn’t get too banged up.