FAIRLAND, Ind. — Video has emerged of a fight on an Indiana high school basketball court. It happened Sunday after a girls' game at the Triton Central High School Fieldhouse in Shelby County.
Now, the Shelby County Sheriff's Department is investigating what led to the fight where investigators say one person reported an injury and had to be checked out by medics.
It was during a tournament game played by girls' high school travel teams, the Cincinnati Indians Elite and the DSB Heat, from Owensboro, Kentucky. The Next Level Classic was put on by Indiana U.S. Amateur Basketball.
The Kentucky team's coach said his girls were already off the court when the punches started flying between the girls from Cincinnati and at least one of the referees.
"Hundreds and hundreds of games, we do it every year. We love it," travel basketball dad Randy Lane said.
He's talking about going to all the games his 15-year-old daughter plays for the DSB Heat. Lane is usually in the stands taking video when his daughter is on the court. After Sunday's game against the Indians Elite, Lane stopped rolling, but hit record again when he said he saw a fight happening on the court.
The video shows a commotion happening on the left side of the screen. It quickly shifts to the right, as you see members of the Cincinnati team walking toward a female referee at center court.
"I didn't hear a lot of what was said, but you could see them arguing back and forth,” Lane said.
The coach from the Kentucky team was watching, too.
"I see them running after her, and she's backpedaling, and it's just chaos, I'm talking just chaos,” DSB Heat coach Bobby Ewing said.
Chaos that Ewing said only got worse when someone in a black hoodie punched the referee.
"Just punched her right in the face. You can see it. Jumps up, hits her in the face,” Ewing described.
You can't see it from the angle in Lane’s video, but Ewing said the referee then threw a basketball at someone.
"I guess she hits somebody, and then about that time, she starts backpedaling, and they get her on the ground and just jump on her,” Ewing said. "They were stomping and everything. Kicking. It was a full-blown fight."
Ewing and several others called 911. He said other referees and a few parents from his team eventually broke up the fight and got the female referee to the sideline.
"It was a scary situation," said Ewing. "It was scary."
And although shocking, not totally surprising, said Ewing, when he considers how contentious the game between the two teams had been.
The DSB Heat was up 41-10 when another referee called the game 10 minutes before it was supposed to end. That's because, Ewing said, the Cincinnati team was swearing at his players, and it seemed to be escalating.
"I hear them saying, ‘We can go outside,’” Ewing said. "None of our kids on our team wants to fight."
If his team said anything back before the refs called the game, Ewing said it was what he calls “basketball talk.”
"'You can't guard me,' or 'I'm going to stop you,' stuff like that. No cussing and all this stuff. You can't attack people,” Ewing said.
The video Lane recorded, though, shows it can happen and certainly did after Sunday’s game.
"I think there needs to be some accountability,” he said.
The Shelby County Sheriff's Office said it is still investigating what happened.
On Tuesday, Cincinnati coach Carter Kita spoke with 13News over Zoom and said there was building frustration during the game with one of the referees over calls and comments.
"Definitely a learning experience for both sides, from our girls, to the referees, and to anyone out there that unfortunately, you know, things like this should not happen," Kita said. "I'm very apologetic about what happened. It definitely should not have came to this point of this ref being jumped."
13News also reached out to Indiana U.S. Amateur Basketball, the organization that put on the tournament. They have not yet responded to our email.