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, together with three fans being tossed within the Lady Eagles’ 57-46 win.
It began when Arkansas State’s Emma Imevbore and Southern Miss’ leading scorer Domonique Davis jostled for a rebound late within the second quarter with the Lady Eagles leading, 30-26.
A post-whistle shove by Imevbore led to 2 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 bottom via a shove by Imevbore.
Imevbore and Southern Miss’ Brikayla Gray attempted to hit each other before a Lady Eagles player grabbed Imevbore from behind and pulled her away from the scuffle.
Because the player pulled, she fell down, which knocked over Southern Miss assistant coach Jessica Barber.
Barber needed to be helped to the locker room and returned after halftime with crutches, based on the Hattiesburg American.
The referees attempted to interrupt it up, however the situation had already gotten out of hand.
“This might get ugly, it has gotten ugly,” one announcer said.
As players picked themselves up off the court, three fans walked right down to the court, with one even putting her hands on the referee to maneuver him out of the strategy to attend to a player.
Said fan began screaming — it’s hard to inform at whom — and starting moving forward, with a Southern Miss player stopping her.
The brawl ultimately resulted within the ejection of Imevbore, Cornfield, Davis, Gray and Southern Miss’ Ashja Leake.
Despite being down 4 players for the second half, the Lady Eagles managed to grab the win to enhance to 14-10 overall and 7-6 in Sun Belt play.
“I can’t really comment because I even have to follow conference guidelines,” Southern Miss coach Joye Lee-McNelis said after the sport. “I just think it’s very, very, very unlucky.
“I feel that in every incident you will have in life, you learn.You could not like the results, but you’re goin to learn from them. I feel that, which we don’t consider we must always have done, it won’t occur again. It can not occur again. We’ve got to know, every decision we make, wherever we’re in life, will determine our future — whether it’s tomorrow, the following day, whatever.”