No. 18 St. Louis defeated VCU 88-75 on a power play Friday, thanks to a fiery brawl shortly before the clock expired.
Interestingly, Billikens guard Quentin Jones attempted a dribble to lead his team to a double-digit lead. VCU’s Nyk Lewis clearly wasn’t happy about this, stealing the ball, taking a few steps, and shooting up from half court, causing SLU star Robbie Avila (you may remember him from Indiana State) to knock him out of bounds.
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Avila was called for a foul and was violently shoved in the back by VCU forward Barry Evans, who was then shoved by Jones. Called the bench with 1.1 seconds left in the game.
Chaotic sideline angle:
After a lengthy delay, the referee ejected Evans and Jones with two flagrant fouls and ejected all players who had left the bench after the altercation began.
That leaves VCU with just four players. Lewis made three free throws and the game ended.
Oddly enough, this is the second year in a row that a fight has broken out at a game between Virginia Commonwealth University and St. Louis University.
After the game, both sides played down the incident, with Avila saying “that’s not who we are” and “there was no ill will between anyone, it was just the emotion of the game.”
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VCU head coach Phil Martelli Jr agrees:
“I think there’s definitely a healthy intensity, like what a top team in the league should have, right? We have a lot of respect for them. I think they have a certain amount of respect for us, too,” Rams coach Phil Martley Jr. said. “It’s two tough teams, two very competitive teams, two good teams. Things like this, you wish it didn’t happen, but, yeah, it’s an intense game. It’s an emotional game.”
St. Louis head coach Josh Schertz said the incident will be “blown out of proportion,” then provided his own recap of the incident:
“The guy stole the ball and Rob wasn’t nice to him and fouled him, and then the guy wasn’t nice to Rob for fouling him and shoved him in the back with two hands. And then our guy pushed the guy back and everyone circled around and did what you normally do in basketball, everyone is trying to stop it so they don’t have to do anything.”
The win keeps St. Louis atop the Atlantic Ten. Friday’s game is between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the standings and improves the Billikens’ record to 13-1, while VCU is 12-3.