8 Players Suspended After Women's College Basketball Game Turns Into Brawl

Eight players were ejected when a tense game between Texas Christian University and George Washington University's women's basketball teams escalated into a brawl.

The altercation began with GWU guard Essence Brown and TCU forward Bella Cravens during the second quarter of Monday's game.

According to TCU Basketball beat reporter Ray Cartwright, "Things turned ugly at the 5:51 mark in the second."

Cravens became visibly upset after she believed Brown pulled her hair while they both went for the ball. The disagreement escalated and additional players from both universities jumped in to defend their teammates.

Sports reporter Daniel Frank reported, "It all started with an accidental hair pull and just escalated from there. My goodness."

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Cartwright shared the full list of ejected players after the game. Five GWU players were ejected and three from TCU.

GWU's players ejected from the game include Nya Robertson, Nya Lok, Jayla Thorton, Caia Loving and Essence Brown, per Cartwright. The players from TCU who were ejected include Bella Cravens, Lucy Ibeh and Roxanne Makolo.

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TCU head coach Raegen Pebley addressed the incident during her postgame presser. Pebley condemned the athletes' behavior and said her team "never wants to be a part of anything like" the physical on-court altercation.

"It doesn't matter to me one bit who started it, who said what, it doesn't even matter," continued Pebley, who added that both TCU and GWU have "high-character kids" that let "the moment get away from all of them."

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Pebley applauded the game's referees for doing "an incredible job" of "managing" the situation, "not just in the moment but throughout the game as well," she said. "They don't want to be a part of something like that either."

TCU came up victorious on Monday, winning the game 70-58.