Two Indiana girls basketball teams suspended for season

Indiana’s athletic association has suspended two high school girls basketball teams after a benches-clearing fight over the weekend.

The Pike and Ben Davis high school teams also will not be able to participate in the postseason, and they’ll both be on probation during the 2016 and 2017 seasons. The incident occurred during Saturday’s game when a player was fouled. Players then began fighting while teammates and fans rushed on to the court.

The incident can be seen in the video below, starting at about the 1:16 mark. Within seconds of the foul, there appears to be more than 50 people on the court.

From FOX59 in Indianapolis:

“It was an event that was unacceptable,it was egregious, it was violent and it has been dealt with,” said Indiana High School Athletic Association commissioner Bobby Cox.

The players involved will participate in a sportsmanship class and the coaches will be required to take a behavior and role model course.  

It will be up to Pike and Ben Davis administrators to discipline individual players.  A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township told FOX59 through email that the school plans on accepting the sanctions.

“We will comply with the consequences we’ve received from the IHSAA.”

The IHSAA sent out a press release describing sanctions against each team. Saturday’s game will go down as a double forfeit, and coaches from both teams will be required to complete the Teaching and Modeling Behavior course through the National Federation of State High School Associations.

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