Nathan Hutchinson
A bench-clearing brawl that forced the cancellation of Thursday’s Berea College-Indiana University Southeast game at the Seabury Center has prompted the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to suspended 11 players.
After a review of the incident, KIAC officials announced Friday night in a press release that five Berea College players and six IUSE players had been assessed one-game suspensions for fighting.
However, the league’s release did not specify which players had been penalized.
The suspensions could turn out to be very costly for Berea College. The Mountaineers are not scheduled to return to action until Tuesday when they are supposed to play host to a first round KIAC Tournament game.
Berea has just 10 players on its roster and suspensions are usually intended to be served immediately. That could leave the Mountaineers with just five eligible players for the first-round tournament game.
Berea coach John Mills said on Friday evening after the press release was issued by the KIAC that he had not been contacted by the league yet and he did not know which players had been suspended.
The game with IUSE is considered a no contest and the statistics will not be recorded. Berea College was leading 28-27 with 8:52 left in the first half when the fight broke out.
The incident, which included fans from both schools coming onto the court, began after Berea’s Mikah Turner knocked down an IUSE player while trying to set a screen at the top of the key.
IUSE is set to take on Indiana University East today on the road before also playing host to a first-round KIAC game on Tuesday.
