Local Basketball Brawl Narrowly Averted

June 18, 2010 Updated Feb 26, 2010 at 7:19 PM EDT

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana’s NewsCenter) - A local basketball brawl is narrowly averted Thursday night.

The Homestead Spartans battled the Norwell Knights at home for the NHC title.

It was a close game throughout, but as the clock ticked down, tensions ran high between the rivals.

With just a few seconds left, the Knights were up by eight.

That’s when a Norwell senior had the ball and went up for a final dunk. When he came down he celebrated. A senior Homestead player then pushes him, and then a fan comes in and pushes the Norwell player again. The police and staff from both teams break up what could have been an ugly brawl.

Norwell High School Principal Mark Misch says the staff handled the incident well.

“Both teams were playing hard,” Misch said. “I think it was an unfortunate end to a really great and competitive basketball game, that both teams wanted to win. The administrative staff here is reviewing the tape and we're going to look at it to make sure that our students acted in an appropriate manner in regards to the end of the game.”

Homestead’s Superintendent Dr. Steve Yager says he will handle the incident internally and will discipline students according to behavior. He would not comment on the type of discipline.

Two other games with incidents like this happened in the last week.

Norwell shares the NHC title with Homestead and Carroll. All teams finished with 6-1 in conference play.