A basketball
Representation. A basketball. Risto3/Pixabay

KEY POINTS

  • A fight erupted between TCU and George Washington University players during a women's basketball game Monday
  • GWU guard Essence Brown accidentally pulled the hair of TWU forward Bella Cravens
  • Five GWU and three TCU players, including Brown and Cravens, were ejected from the game

Eight players were ejected from a recent women's basketball match between the Texas Christian University (TCU) Horned Frogs and George Washington University (GWU) Colonials after a brawl erupted on the court.

The fight broke out in the second quarter of a National Collegiate Athletic Association game held at Fort Worth, Texas' Schollmaier Arena Monday, Yahoo Sports reported.

GWU's guard, Essence Brown, was called for a foul after she pulled the hair of TCU's forward, Bella Cravens, during a steal attempt.

Cravens pointed to her hair following the move, and the two then began to exchange punches, footage of the encounter showed.

The girls' teammates and game officials attempted to break up the brawl.

It was unclear if the hair pull was intentional, but sports writer Daniel Frank said it was done on accident.

"It all started with an accidental hair pull and just escalated from there. My goodness," Frank said in a tweet.

Monday's game was stopped for nearly 20 minutes as officials sorted out the situation.

Cravens and two of her TCU teammates, Lucy Ibeh and Roxane Makolo, were ejected from the match.

GWU's Brown, Caia Loving, Jayla Thornton, Nya Lok and Nya Robertson were ejected as well.

"We never want to be a part of anything like that," TCU coach Raegan Pebley was quoted as saying by Yahoo Sports after the game.

"It doesn't matter to me one bit who started it, who said what. It doesn't matter. We don't ever want to be a part of anything like that. I definitely know that we have, as do they, high-character kids that the moment got away from all of them," she added.

GWU, for its part, said in a statement to ESPN that the incident "was obviously challenging and unfortunate for our student-athletes and coaches."

"We are working with the necessary parties on the path forward," GWU said.

Neither the Big 12 nor the Atlantic 10 conferences addressed Monday's brawl.

It is unknown if any of the teams involved will be penalized over the fight.

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TCU, which led GWU 27-24 at the time the fight broke out, ended up winning the game 70-58.

The team will next face Missouri State University's Lady Bears Friday.

A basketball ring
Representation. A basketball backboard and hoop. radoslaw_zmudzinski/Pixabay