Community reacts to referee incident at Buchanan, Benton Harbor basketball game

DOWAGIAC, Mich. -- The community shared their thoughts following an incident that occurred Wednesday night at a boys' basketball game between Benton Harbor High School and Buchanan Community Schools.

The game took place in Dowagiac as part of a neutral tournament for Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) Division 2. The final score was 39-36 Buchanan.

The incident in question was caught on camera, which shows the end of the game as players and fans begin to stand up. Then, someone throws a basketball in the air which bounces off the head of a referee.

What appears to be water bottles are also thrown, hitting that same referee at which point he falls down and is helped up by police officers in attendance.

One Benton Harbor resident, Stacy Jackson, said she wasn’t at the game, but was shocked when she saw the footage.

"I was just like wow… if it was a bad call, they could have handled it differently. Not throw nothing at the old man because that was wrong. That was just so wrong. I did, I felt bad for him… the younger kids probably feel like it's okay to do that, and it's not,” said Jackson.

The Buchanan Community Schools Superintendent, Patricia Robinson, was at the game Wed. night.

She explained she is proud of her students for how they handled the situation, but said she, like several others, are questioning some of the referee’s calls.

"As things were being projected out toward the referee, they were also being projected out at our kids. These are 16, 17, 15-year-olds that are just played a game. Just won a big game. And then they had to flip their minds to go into protection mode… I’ve worked in Benton Harbor for over 23 years in the school district. And um, I had never seen that type of officiating like that, ever. Ever. This was my first time ever experiencing that,” said Robinson.

She goes on to say the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) is investigating the situation, which will hopefully answer the outstanding questions from the community.

"I'm quite sure they're going to find out the whys and be able to answer those questions that we are asking,” said Robinson.

In a statement to ABC57, the MHSAA did confirm they are investigating the situation, “We won’t have much to say until our investigation of the incident is complete, hopefully next week. We’ve spoken with both schools who played in the game, the host school and the official, and are awaiting the official’s report from the game as part of this process, which is standard when there is an ejection or similar negative circumstances… I can confirm that we are not investigating the official himself, nor have we in the past or had reason to do so.”