College Basketball Players Ejected After Heated Brawl in UT Martin-SIUE Game

By | Bullscore 4 Mar, 2023

Thursday night in Ohio Valley Conference tournament saw college basketball players get into an extremely heated brawl in the game between UT Martin Skyhawks and the SIU Edwardsville Cougars. The brawl later turned into a wild sucker punch which resulted in the ejection of three players from the game.

The fight started when the Cougars tried to make a shot in the first half of the game. UT Martin forward Rifen Miguel made space for a rebound but Cougars’ DeeJuan Pruitt blocked him.

After a few minutes, both the players muddled with each other while trying to take possession of the ball. However, Miguel got fired up and took a swing at Pruitt which connected and resulted in the wild brawl between the two teams.

Here is everything that happened that led up to DeeJuan Pruitt throwing one of the worst sucker punches that you'll ever see in SIU-Edwardsville vs. UT Martin. Hopefully Rifen Miguel is ok. pic.twitter.com/I0l4QfXSMi
— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) March 3, 2023

Refs entered the scene and stopped both teams from getting more intimate in the altercation and preventing a more fatal incident. The officials reviewed the fight and announce the ejection of Rifen Miguel, DeeJuan Pruitt, and UT Martin player Jalen Myers.

Seeing this level of violence in a college basketball game even before March Madness 2023 one can say the upcoming NCAA tournament is going to be full of controversies.

UT Martin won the game despite being short of two players in the game. UT Martin advanced to the championship game in the OVC conference tournament with this win. However, this brawl also cost Skyhawks a big time, as according to the rule of the NCAA, players who are ejected for fighting will get a suspension for one game. That said, Rifen Miguel and Jalen Myers will not be available for UT Martins in the OVC conference title game on Friday against Tennessee Tech.