No. 18 Saint Louis ended its 88-75 win over VCU on a power play Friday, thanks to a wild brawl shortly before time expired.
The fun began with Billikens guard Quentin Jones trying to dribble out the clock with his team up by double-digits. VCU’s Nyk Lewis apparently wasn’t happy about that, as he stole the ball, took a few steps and jacked up a halfcourt shot, which resulted in SLU star Robbie Avila — you might remember him from his time at Indiana State — bumping him out of bounds.
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Avila was called for a foul and also received a hard shove in the back from VCU forward Barry Evans, who then got shoved by Jones. Cue the benches the clearing, with 1.1 seconds left on the clock.
The courtside angle of the chaos:
After a lengthy delay, the officials ejected Evans and Jones with flagrant 2 fouls and also ejected all the players who left the bench once the dust-up started.
That left VCU with only four players. Lewis hit his three free throws, and the game ended.
Curiously, it’s the second straight year in which a VCU-Saint Louis game saw a brawl break out.
Both sides downplayed the incident after the game, with Avila saying “That’s not who we are” and “here’s no ill intentions between anybody, just the emotions of the game.”
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VCU head coach Phil Martelli Jr agreed:
“I think there’s certainly a healthy intensity, as there should be at the top of the league, right? We’ve got a lot of respect for them. I think they have some respect for us, I assume,” Rams coach Phil Martelli Jr. said. “It’s two tough teams, two very competitive teams, two physical teams. Stuff like that, you wish it didn’t happen but, yeah, it’s an intense game. It’s an emotional game.”
Saint Louis head coach Josh Schertz said the incident would “get blown out of proportion,” then provided his own recap of the incident:
“Guy stole the ball, Rob didn’t take too kindly to it, fouled him, then that guy didn’t take too kindly to Rob fouling him, two-hand shove in the back. And then our guy shoved that guy back and everybody just milled around and did what the general basketball fighting does, which is everybody’s trying to get held back so they don’t have to do anything.”
The win keeps Saint Louis in the driver’s seat in the Atlantic 10. Friday’s game was between the No. 1 and No. 2. teams in the standings, and improved the Billikens’ conference record to 13-1 while VCU sits at 12-3.
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