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Youth basketball coach charged after fight at high school basketball game

Laquita Carter. (Provided Photo/Hamilton County Sheriff's Office)

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Charges have been filed against a youth basketball coach after an on-court fight broke out during a basketball game in July.

It took place at a girls’ basketball game between the Cincinnati Indians Elite and the DSP Heat from Kentucky at Triton Central High School in Shelby County.

According to court documents, Laquita Carter, one of the coaches of the Cincinnati team, attacked game official Jessica Harrison.

They say it all started with the coach getting verbal with Harrison on how she was officiating the game.

That’s when Cincinnati Indian Elite players began to surround Harrison.

“If you’re coaching these kids, you’re not supposed to be fighting you’re supposed to be getting your kids back. I mean this is beyond basketball,” former coach of the Dynasty Sports Performance, or DSP, Heat, Bobby Ewing.

Ewing was at the game when the fight broke out. He says the Cincinnati team was not happy with the score.

“The rumor is (the Cincinnati players) called her racist and (Harrison’s Black), but I think she said something in the quotes like, ‘Why do you act like that when you play against white kids?’ Like, take a loss. It’s just a game. You don’t have to get all mad and defensive when you’re getting beat no matter who you’re playing.’ And I think they took (defensively),” Ewing said.

Court documents say while Harrison’s attention was on the players, Carter grabbed her from behind and pinned her to the ground.

Then Carter’s 15-year-old son hit Harrison at least twice.

After the official was attacked, she was also chased around the basketball court by Carter and players from the Cincinnati team.

She says her wig was ripped from her head by one of the players, causing her natural hair to be removed from her scalp.

“I just didn’t know if they were going to stop because when they got her down they kept kicking her and more of the kids were coming over and one coach, the assistant coach was going to come over to kick her and I’m like, I think two of our dads went over there to split it up. Some of the refs were trying to break it up, too,” Ewing said.

According to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department, Carter faces felony charges for criminal confinement and battery charges out of Shelby Circuit Court.

She is being held at the Hamilton County, Ohio, Justice Center.

During the tournament, officials also say members of a boys’ team stole five curved monitors from a classroom at the high school with an estimated loss of $1,700.

Carter is due in court Wednesday.