Referee injured knocked to floor in college basketball brawl

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A women’s college basketball game took a wild turn when a brawl broke out and a referee got caught in the crossfire.

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The incident occurred during the second-round Sun Belt Conference tournament game between South Alabama and Coastal Carolina.

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With South Alabama up by nine in the fourth quarter, things got heated between Cordasia Harris and Coastal Carolina’s Tracey Hueston under the basket.

After the two players appeared to exchange words, Hueston quickly turned around, shoving Harris and then throwing a punch at her opponent.

One of Harris’ teammates grabbed her to pull her away from the ruckus before she could retaliate while another South Alabama player and a ref got between Harris and Hueston.

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A second referee, Marla Gearhart, then entered the fray, only be struck by Hueston also she was moving away from the growing group of players. The ref was knocked to the floor by the wild swing and appeared to lay motionless as the players were separated by members of the coaching staff.

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A South Alabama staffer and another official guarded the area around the injured referee until medical personnel arrived on the court to check on the official.

Was the referee OK?

After the game, the Sun Belt Conference announced that Gearhart was evaluated by medical personnel at the Pensacola Bay Center and was released. It is unclear when she will return to her on-court duties.

The Sun Belt Conference also announced several suspensions as a result of the brawl, with Hueston getting hit the hardest with a ban for the remainder of the 2025-26 season, including any tournaments.

South Alabama, which won the game 80-70 to advance in the tournament, will now be without Harris, Amyah Sutton and Daniela Gonzalez, who all received one-game suspensions for their roles in the fight.

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What did the coaches say?

After the game, South Alabama coach Yolisha Jackson told reporters that the whole thing was “a very unfortunate situation.”

“Well, first of all, our program, we never want to be put in that situation and we never want to act out like that, so we don’t condone that, what happened today,” Jackson told reporters after the game, per The Athletic. ”It’s a very unfortunate situation for two talented basketball teams that have played in Pensacola in the tournament.

“With young people, sometimes emotions run high and as they go through their growth process and their maturity, sometimes things happen. But we always try to look at it as a lesson learned and make sure the next time that if we are put in a similar situation that we just respond a little differently and so that’s what we’ll talk about at the hotel tonight.”

Coastal Carolina coach Kevin Pederson said that he knows Hueston “regrets” what happened.

“She’s an incredible model citizen off the floor and she knows she can’t act that way,” he said. “That was extremely frustrating for everybody, certainly something we don’t approve of in this program. It’s nothing you want to see. You hate to see that in your last game.”

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