[UPDATED] The Hall varsity boys basketball team beat Conard 43-42 Monday night, but the score wasn’t final until after a fight was broken up.

Hall vs. Conard basketball. Image from Twitter

By Ronni Newton

The crosstown rivalry between West Hartford’s Conard and Hall high schools is always intense, but Monday night emotions erupted into what some called a “brawl” as fans who thought the game had ended stormed the court with two seconds left on the clock after Hall senior Gabe Lichetenstein put Hall ahead 43-42.

One Hall parent said that Conard had called for a timeout after Hall’s basket, which the referee recogized, but the buzzer went off anyway and that was when Hall stormed the court in celebration.

Accounts of what happened after that are varied, and adminstrators from both schools were meeting Tuesday to review the many videos that parents and others had taken to try to piece together who exactly started the fight.

“We are still reviewing the videos, and tomorrow we will be meeting with the students we have identified,” Conard Principal Julio Duarte said Tuesday afternoon.

Duarte and Hall Principal Dan Zittoun sent out the following letter under joint signature to the school communities Tuesday afternoon, and read a similar message over the loudspeaker at their respective schools earlier in the day:

The actions of our students and student-athletes at last night’s basketball game are deeply embarrassing and have cast both Conard and Hall in a negative light.  We want you to know that our schools and our students are better than this and that we will take steps to hold students accountable for last night’s actions, and to ensure that this behavior does not repeat itself at future events.

 If our students cannot behave in the appropriate manner and hold themselves to our standards, then they will not be allowed to attend future events.  If our athletes cannot wear their Conard or Hall uniform with the pride and dignity that it deserves and demands, then they will not be a part of our teams.  Working with the WHPD, we are reviewing footage of the game to identify the individuals involved.  Any student who threw a punch or instigated in this conflict will receive consequences for their actions.

Again, we are deeply embarrassed by the actions of a few. Our schools and our students are better that this and we will take all steps necessary to make sure the this behavior does not repeat itself.

Late Monday night, West Hartford Police said that people at the game had “gotten into a shoving match,” after the court was stormed. Police reported that there were “no injuries and no arrests,” and that they were able to calm everyone down relatively quickly.

West Hartford Police spokesperson Lt. Ted Stoneburner confirmed Tuesday that, “Upon arrival, officers helped private duty officers and school personnel maintain order.”

Some parents who were at the game reported that a Hall coach sustained an ankle injury and at least one person had gotten a bloody nose. Reports of those injuries could not be verified.

“We’re typically so proud of our high schools. We have two good high schools in town, but today myself, Dan [Hall Principal Zittoun], Julio [Conard Principal Duarte] and hopefully the majority of students are embarrassed about what took place,” Superintendent of Schools Tom Moore said Tuesday morning.

Moore was not at the game, but said that his understanding is that Hall fans stormed the court, and at some point the Conard fans did the same. Police and others were able to clear the court, and the Hall fans were asked to leave the building so that the remaining two seconds of the game could be played. Moore said that the Conard side was allowed to remain in the building to watch their team and because security did not want everyone leaving at the same time.

Hall coach Bryan Moretti said that although he knew that Conard had one more timeout remaining, he did not realize that the coach had used it. ” I saw the clock go to zero just like our fans,” Moretti said in an email.

Moretti said that Hall’s players were out on the floor with everyone else when the brawl began. “All the coaches tried hardest to gather all the players but at that point there were parents, uncles, aunts, kids, and friends on the floor. Everyone thought the game was over,” he said.

“The kids doing this, it’s unacceptable,” Moore said. He can’t yet determine what will happen next, but said that once the videos are reviewed and the pieces are put together, “If anyone threw a punch there will be severe discipline.”

“We spend a lot of time talking about how great our kids are, but with incidents like this it makes us look like we’re liars,” Moore said.

“We are deeply embarrassed and very disappointed,” Duarte said. “In my conversations with students today, those are the sentinments they’ve expressed, too,” Duarte said.

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