A South Alabama Jaguars women’s basketball game turned ugly on Wednesday when a major brawl between them and Coastal Carolina ended in a referee being injured and eight players being ejected at the Sun Belt Tournament in Pensacola, Florida.
Coastal Carolina’s Tracey Hueston was suspended for the remainder of the postseason as referee Marla Gearhar was knocked to the ground in a scary situation, however, she was evaluated and released by medical personnel at the arena.
Hueston and Cordasia Harris of the Jaguars were the original pair in the fight that ended in Gearhar getting knocked down. Hueston reacted to a shove from Harris, at which point Gearhar tried to step in. Other staff members and players quickly got involved as things spiraled out of control, while Hueston and Harris were both given technical fouls and ejected, along with six other players.
“Well, first of all, our program, we never want to be put in that situation and we never want to act out like that, so we don’t condone that, what happened today. It’s a very unfortunate situation for two talented basketball teams that have played in Pensacola in the tournament,” South Alabama coach Yolisha Jackson said to local reporters.
Harris, along with Amyah Sutton and Daniela Gonzalez, were suspended for one game as the Jaguars try to keep their season alive — a decision South Alabama AD Joel Erdmann disagreed with.
“The incident that took place in Wednesday’s game is extremely unfortunate and unacceptable,” Erdmann said. “However, after an extensive internal review, I do not believe the actions of all three of our student-athletes rose to the level of being classified as fighting as defined by the NCAA rule book…This judgment has negatively impacted the tournament experience of our suspended student-athletes and stripped them of limited opportunities to compete in the postseason.”
South Alabama plays Texas State on Thursday afternoon without the three suspended players.
Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.
