Eight collegiate women’s basketball players were ejected from a game after coming to blows on the court. TCU faced George Washington on Monday on the hardwood, and it was a regular game until a player from TCU felt that her hair was pulled and immediately reacted to the perceived slight.
George Washington Colonial’s guard Essence Brown seemed to get accidentally tangled in the hair of Texas Christian University Horned Frog’s Bella Cravens after Brown rebounded. Cravens then lost the ball and Brown took possession, but Cravens was already aggrieved and decided to let Brown know how she felt. Things escalated when Cravens pushed Brown, who turned around and met her rival with a stiff ready arm, which was returned, leading to a heated exchange as they threw open-palmed hands in each other’s faces.
When The Beef Is Cooked
It all started with an accidental hair pull and just escalated from there. My goodness. pic.twitter.com/4HIBOqablN
— Daniel Frank (@n1a2v3y4) December 6, 2022
As players from both sides attempted to separate the two heated rivals, they became entangled in a mess and ultimately became part of the altercation. In total, eight players were ejected, including Cravens and Brown, following the incident. Additional players taken out the game were Lucy Ibeh and Roxane Makolo of TCU, as well as Nya Robertson, Nya Lok, Jayla Thornton and Caia Loving of George Washington.
“We never want to be a part of anything like that. 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,” TCU’s head coach, Raegan Pebley, said in the postgame press conference.
“I definitely know that we have — as do they — high-character kids that the moment got away from all of them. And I think whenever something like that happens right in front of a bench, as opposed to the other sideline or the middle of the floor, it’s super vulnerable.”
Full list of ejections:
George Washinton- Nya Robertson, Nya Lok, Jayla Thorton, Caia Loving, and Essence BrownTCU- Bella Cravens, Lucy Ibeh, and Roxanne Makolo#GoFrogs | @frogstoday
— Ray Cartwright (@RayCartwright) December 6, 2022
The Player Perspective
Essence Brown appeared in 30 games, starting in all. She averaged a career-high 30.8 mpg, the most on the team, averaging 4.2 ppg, 4.5 RPG, and 0.6 APG. She scored a career-high 11 points on 5-9 shooting against Quinnipiac on Nov. 22, shot 39.7 percent from the field, and was a team-leading 80.0 percent shooter from the free-throw line, posted an all-around effort against Richmond on Jan. 5, tallying 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and one steal.
So excited for this next chapter in my life! Super senior season it is💜🐸 pic.twitter.com/cMQI7cVdTN
— Isabella Cravens (@becravens) April 24, 2022
Bella Cravens started this year with the Nebraska Cornhuskers, averaging 5.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.1 assists in her second season in 2021-22. She notched her only double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds at Illinois on Feb. 12. She put up a Nebraska career-best 15 points with seven rebounds in a win at Minnesota on Dec. 6.
After transferring to TCU, she is averaging 5.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.3 assists with a 40 percent field goal for TCU. Now Bella is putting up stats on visibility as her social media has blown up since the incident. The 6’3″ senior from Hawaii has images of her at the beach or the swimming pool in bikinis. Now that the world has discovered her through drama, her popularity is rising as a student-athlete.
There has been no word on any punishments for the players, but now they are reeling from the negative and positive attention it has brought them.
