Melee forces stoppage between Creek, St. Fred

Officials were forced to call off the Cedar Creek and St. Frederick boy's basketball game Thursday night at the Brickhouse after a fight broke out between players in the fourth quarter.

The scrum happened with 4:45 left in the contest with the Warriors leading 72-49. The fight broke out after St. Fred's Miller Day hit the deck following a missed shot and got tangled up with Creek junior guard Luke Waldron as Waldron tried to get around Day as he was getting up off the floor. The fight broke out from there in front of the Warriors' bench and law enforcement and school administrators rushed in to break up the scene, while multiple players from both teams left their benches.

After speaking amongst themselves and with both coaches, officials called the game and had law enforcement escort St. Frederick's visiting student section out of the gym. Since it was not deemed a no-contest, St. Frederick was awarded the win.

Creek head coach Lance Waldron said details are still being worked out but said the unfortunate events weren't what sportsmanship is about in the high school ranks.

"I wish the camera didn't pan away because you can't see what happened," Waldron said of his review of the Hudl film camera. "I don't know who exactly or who was throwing punches. You can clearly see there are people leaving the bench.

"High school basketball is fun when you have two student sections that are lively," Waldron continued. "But their student section wasn't fun. It was a lot of name-calling, individual insults, then when administration came over there I think they were rude. I don't know what was going on with all of that. You couldn't help but hear it. Here's the thing, you're teaching your kids to not talk to the referees because lord knows we've had our stumbles. We tell the kids don't talk trash and don't talk to referees. And I have players coming up to me and saying, 'Coach, we're not talking, we're not talking. We're doing what we're supposed to do.' And they did. It just kept going. And it got out of hand. They were beating us and it was just insult to injury."

Gene Vandenlangberg, Cedar Creek boys athletic director, said the matter is now in the hands of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association (LHSAA) as to who will be suspended.

"Preliminary deal is I believe the High School Athletic Association will look at the tape and based on what they see on the tape will hand out deisions on any suspensions," Vandenlangberg said. "Basically the tape hopefully has all the information the High School Association will review this and officials will write their report and we just have to wait.

"First off, the thing you gotta sort through is who left the bench and then there's a rule if they leave the bench then there are some classes they gotta take and there's a process you gotta go through."

Waldron added what he was told from officials about what the rules are regarding players leaving the bench, whether they were attempting to be peacemakers or not.

"According to what the referees told me after the game that it doesn't matter if one person was doing all the fighting and he was just hammering on somebody. They're both suspended," Waldron said. "I don't understand that rule and he didn't understand it either but he said that's the rule. If two people get in a fight and the other one is not punching back, both still get suspended. That's kind of what we have here in our opinion. I don't have video evidence of it. What I was told by our kids that it was a just a melee down there."

Waldron went on to talk about players who left the bench.

"Anybody that left the bench is going be ejected for the next game," Waldron said. "I don't know how far away from the bench you get. If you just stood up on your bench I don't know any of those details. We had some guys that were going over to break it up to get people away and according to the rules by what the officials are saying those kids will be suspended too, even if you're trying to break something up."