Pensacola, Florida — Amidst a Brawl south alabama And coastal carolina Eight players were eliminated from the women’s Sun Belt tournament on Wednesday knocked a referee to the floorWhere he needed medical care.
A player from Coastal Carolina tracy houstonWas suspended for the remainder of the 2026 postseason.
There were less than six minutes left in the fourth quarter for South Alabama. cordesia harris And Houston started fighting under the basket. It appeared that Harris was slightly hitting Houston from behind, before Houston turned around and began pushing and swinging at Harris, who pushed back.
The two referees, several teammates and staff members immediately worked to separate the women, and in the melee, referee Marla Gierher was knocked to the floor. It appeared that Houston had hit Gierher in the head or neck area as the referee was attempting to push him away from Harris.
Gearhar remained lying on her back on the floor until order was restored and several staff members and a medical professional ran into the court to tend to her. A sheriff’s deputy also came to the courthouse after the fight ended.
It was announced at the conference that he was evaluated by medical personnel on the field and released.
Houston and Harris were both given technical fouls and ejected along with six other players who participated in the fight.
Harris with friends amiah sutton And Daniela GonzalezHe was later suspended for one game. south alabama won the game 80-70 and set to play Texas State On Thursday.
While South Alabama athletic director Joel Erdman did not condemn the Jaguars players’ involvement in the fight, he took issue with aspects of the officials’ decisions.
“The incident that occurred at Wednesday’s game is extremely unfortunate and unacceptable,” Erdman said. “However, after an extensive internal review, I do not believe that the actions of our three student-athletes rose to the level of being classified as fighting as defined by the NCAA rulebook.
“This decision has negatively impacted the tournament experience of our suspended student-athletes and stripped them of limited opportunities to compete in the postseason,” Erdman said.
