Even some fans got involved — and got the boot.
A wild on-court brawl Thursday night between the Arkansas State and Southern Miss basketball teams resulted in five player ejections, along with three fans being tossed in the Lady Eagles’ 57-46 win.
It all started when Arkansas State’s Emma Imevbore and Southern Miss’ leading scorer Domonique Davis jostled for a rebound late in the second quarter with the Lady Eagles leading, 30-26.
A post-whistle shove by Imevbore led to two of Davis’ teammates coming to her defense, with Noelani Cornfield pushing Imevbore.
And that’s when the commotion escalated right in front of Southern Miss’ bench, with Davis hitting the ground via a shove by Imevbore.
Imevbore and Southern Miss’ Brikayla Gray attempted to hit one another before a Lady Eagles player grabbed Imevbore from behind and pulled her away from the scuffle.
As the player pulled, she fell down, which knocked over Southern Miss assistant coach Jessica Barber.
Barber had to be helped to the locker room and returned after halftime with crutches, according to the Hattiesburg American.
The referees attempted to break it up, but the situation had already gotten out of hand.
“This could get ugly, it has gotten ugly,” one announcer said.
As players picked themselves up off the court, three fans walked down to the court, with one even putting her hands on the referee to move him out of the way to attend to a player.
Said fan started screaming — it’s hard to tell at whom — and starting moving forward, with a Southern Miss player stopping her.
The brawl ultimately resulted in the ejection of Imevbore, Cornfield, Davis, Gray and Southern Miss’ Ashja Leake.
Despite being down four players for the second half, the Lady Eagles managed to grab the win to improve to 14-10 overall and 7-6 in Sun Belt play.
“I can’t really comment because I have to follow conference guidelines,” Southern Miss coach Joye Lee-McNelis said after the game. “I just think it’s very, very, very unfortunate.
“I believe that in every incident you have in life, you learn.You may not like the consequences, but you’re goin to learn from them. I think that, which we do not believe we should have done, it won’t happen again. It will not happen again. We’ve got to understand, every decision we make, wherever we are in life, will determine our future — whether it’s tomorrow, the next day, whatever.”
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