A brawl during Sunday’s SEC Women’s Basketball Championship game between LSU and South Carolina caused significant delays and one fan who jumped over the scorer’s table was taken away in handcuffs.
South Carolina managed to hold on even after a minute-long comeback late in the game to win 79-72 and claim its eighth SEC crown in the past 10 seasons.
Both benches were effectively ejected from the game after the incident, which occurred with just over two minutes left in the game and South Carolina leading LSU 73-66.
Fraujai Johnson’s intentional foul on Milesia Fulwily sparked anger, leading to a near melee as another South Carolina player touched Johnson, but Johnson was thrown in front of an LSU player. and shoved Ashlyn Watkins, who appeared to be celebrating.
At that moment, South Carolina’s Camila Cardoso appeared out of nowhere and slammed Johnson to the ground, causing both benches to rush onto the court.
That’s when a man, identified on ESPN’s broadcast as Johnson’s brother, ran from the stands onto the court, forcing uniformed police officers to retrain and remove him from the floor.
After officials reviewed the incident on replay, the game was delayed 20 minutes, Johnson was called for an intentional foul and Cardoso was given a disqualifying foul, making it 5-on-5 with 2:08 remaining. .
“I just want to apologize to the basketball community. When you’re playing in a championship game like this in our league, things get heated,” University of South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said in an interview with ESPN after the game. Ta. “There’s no malicious intent. Sometimes things like this happen because their emotions get ahead of them. So we’d like to apologize for any part we played in that. That’s not who we are. That’s not our purpose. No, but I’m happy that the players who were able to finish the game brought us another championship.”
The game was a frenetic affair through most of the afternoon, with LSU and South Carolina sharing a rivalry that has had many negative effects between the two programs.
Both schools are among the best teams in women’s college basketball in recent years.
Reigning national champion LSU was 28-4 this season and 13-3 in the SEC, while South Carolina was undefeated this year with a perfect 31-0 record.
