A Ohio Valley Conference Tournament The quarterfinal matchup between Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and Tennessee-Martin on Thursday night took a nasty turn after punches were thrown early in the game, resulting in three players being ejected.
UT Martin led SIUE, 31-27, with just over four minutes left in the first quarter when Cougars forward DeeJuan Pruitt punched Rifen Miguel in the face after the Skyhawks senior appeared to run down court with both arms outstretched over Pruitt.
UT Martin’s Rifen Miguel, left, dives toward SIU-Edwardsville’s DeeJuan Pruitt, right, in the first half of their Ohio Valley Conference second-round game at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana, Thursday, May 2. March 2023 at night. (Reuters)
A fight broke out before players and coaches intervened to separate the players.
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The game was delayed for 10 minutes before the referees ejected Pruitt, Miguel, and UT Martin forward Jalen Myers.
Miguel was also seen leaving court with a bloody face.
Rifen Miguel, #23 of the Ohio Bobcats, enters for the game against the Virginia Cavaliers in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Assembly Hall on March 20, 2021 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
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“I think when you’re talking about a variety of emotions, we’re talking about winning looking different every night,” UT Martin head coach Ryan Ridder said via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “If you had told me the last two hours would look like this, I wouldn’t have believed you. But at the end of the day, that’s a resilient group that found a way to get out understaffed and get it done.”
Marquette Golden Eagles forward Justin Lewis, #10, flips over SIU Edwardsville Cougars forward DeeJuan Pruitt, #1, during a game between the Marquette Golden Eagles and the Edwardsville Cougars of Southern Illinois University at the Fiserv Forum on November 9, 2021 in Milwaukee. (Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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The Skyhawks defeated SIU-Edwardsville 81-75 to advance to the semifinals on Friday night where they will play Tennessee Tech.
Associated Press contributed to this report.