Lewiston and Lawrence high schools coexisted athletically with disarming ease Saturday.

Their girls’ basketball teams battled in Lewiston without a hint of animosity.

Spectators from the two communities convened by the hundreds on neutral turf at Augusta Civic Center, passionately and positively backing their competition cheerleading squads as each clinched a berth in next month’s state championship.

“You wouldn’t know, honestly,” said Lewiston Athletic Director Jason Fuller, referring to fallout from a fracas less than 24 hours earlier that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye, but was in the back of everyone’s mind.

Like a day of blue skies and still breezes after a hurricane, the two schools calmly wrestled with the aftermath of an ugly incident during a boys’ basketball game Friday night at Folsom Gym in Fairfield.

The game was suspended at the end of the third quarter after pushing and shoving between players from the two teams prompted an undetermined number of spectators – many of them peacemaking adults and students – to spill onto the court.

That’s where the details become sketchy, with different versions according to which school’s blue uniform the storyteller wears or what spectacles an onlooker was peering through.

Fuller and his colleague, Lawrence AD Bill MacManus, each accentuated the positive Saturday while saying that any disciplinary action against players is pending further investigation of the facts.

“Nobody was hurt. It lasted probably, and Jason would agree with this, less than two minutes,” MacManus said. “We told the kids to sit down, we told the fans to sit down, and that was it.”

MacManus bristled at early media reports of a brawl, noting that he would classify the scene as an “altercation.” He added that a published account of the dustup attributed to Lawrence assistant coach Elon Firmage was essentially correct.

In that Waterville Morning Sentinel story, Firmage said tensions boiled over after one Lewiston player was ejected and another committed a hard foul against Matt Perkins of Lawrence. Shoving ensued and benches cleared. At one point, someone hurled a basketball through the air at another player.

“We still need to gather information and facts,” cautioned Fuller. “The good thing is that nobody was hurt. There’s great cooperation between the two schools. We get along thoroughly. (We’re) on the same page.”

Fuller was attending an indoor track and field meet at Bowdoin College in Brunswick and was not at the game.

After receiving a call from MacManus reporting the incident, he made the one-hour trip north to Lawrence, where the two administrators watched film of the incident together late Friday night.

MacManus praised the security detail at Lawrence for restoring order. It was a normal game-night arrangement that included one police officer in the gym, another at an adjacent school dance, and four faculty members.

Lawrence often enlists extra security for potentially contentious games, MacManus said. Lewiston’s visit did not dictate such measures, he added, after the teams played each other without incident on the Blue Devils’ home court last month. The teams are traditional conference opponents but aren’t considered rivals.

“Nobody would have thought anything last night,” either, said McManus. “The game was fine up through three quarters.”

No arrests were made at the scene. Fuller and MacManus each said separately that disciplinary action will be taken against players “at an appropriate time.”

As for the game – one Lawrence led 45-35 with eight minutes to play – its fate rests in the hands of state basketball commissioner Peter Webb. MacManus said it would not likely be a forfeit but could be considered final.

If the game must be completed in its entirety, MacManus said the schools have not discussed whether spectators will be allowed. One discussion certain to take place next week at both schools, though, is sportsmanship.

“Of course I’m disappointed. Anybody would be disappointed,” Fuller said. “It’s a disappointment for both communities.”