Prior to the start of a high school basketball game between Griffith High School and Hammond High School in Indiana over the weekend, tensions were unusually high. The schools' junior varsity teams finished a game about an hour before tipoff and there were several technical fouls called during it. Griffith head coach Gary Hayes later admitted that things were actually so tense that he thought about pulling his varsity team off the court and not playing. But he didn't and, well, let's just say that he should have trusted his instincts.
About three minutes into the start of the game, Griffith player Anthony Murphy was going in for a dunk when Hammond player Tim Echoles fouled him hard and sent him crashing into the wall behind the basket. And from there, a bench-clearing brawl broke out involving players, fans, and, eventually, the police. Punches were thrown during the fight and, while the cops got things under control pretty quickly (truth be told, the brawl could have been way uglier), the remainder of the game was canceled and both teams are now facing suspensions.
"It was the worst flagrant foul I've ever seen since I've been coaching," the 68-year-old Hayes said after the game.
It most definitely was a hard foul and it's not hard to see how and why it started a brawl. But the fact that parents and fans got involved is the worst part of it. The police are now looking into filing charges against a few of them.
Check out the video above to see just how crazy things got.
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[via NWI Times]
