Ref wanted to continue EC-Wallace game

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:22AM

The chaos-filled game between East Chicago Central and Lew Wallace last Friday that was never completed, featured five technical fouls and a bench-clearing incident, according to Michael Spann, the head official.

Spann is from Elkhart.

"It's unfortunate," said Spann, who has been officiating games for 32 years. "I've never seen anything like that happen."

Spann said a series of events led to the technicals, which led to the benches clearing, which then led to fans from East Chicago spilling onto the floor.

The technical that ignited the potential melee was called on Lew Wallace's Branden Dawson after Spann saw him push an East Chicago player with about four minutes left in the third quarter.

As Spann was walking to the scorers table, he said an East Chicago player shoved a Wallace player and was also assessed a technical.

Apparently, both benches emptied after the second technical foul was called. In total, three technicals were called on EC and two on Wallace - one on the bench and one Dawson. EC had two players and its bench whistled for a technical.

Spann praised both coaches - Wallace's Renaldo Thomas and EC's Abe Brown - for getting their players under control after the fans went onto the floor.

Spann said fans in the stands were skirmishing after the technicals and that fans from the East Chicago side came onto the floor.

Gary police took care of the situation on the floor quickly, according to Spann.

To restore order, Spann asked East Chicago to go to its locker room, and he told Lew Wallace players to stay on their bench. Spann said that when he tried to get Brown to go the locker room, Brown told him: "Family comes first."

Spann didn't know what that meant, but he learned later that Brown's sister was removed from the gym by the police because she protested vehemently on the floor after coming out of the stands. Brown's phone said it was no longer taking calls.

Spann said it was his intention to finish the game, which East Chicago was leading.

But he said the Cardinals decided they didn't want to play.

"They just refused," said Spann, who asked them to return to the floor.

When told that East Chicago had filed a report with IHSAA Commissioner Bobby Cox saying that the Gary police told them it wasn't safe to play, Spann said: "I find that hard to believe. It could've happened, but I find it hard to believe."

Spann said administrators or the officials should make that determination, not the police.

Spann, who has worked 17 state tournaments and who had worked the previous night when Wallace played LaLumiere, said he is upset about how the whole evening went.

"I'm an up-and-up guy," he said. "I just wonder what we could've done to prevent it."

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