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Yesterday, the women’s college world experienced something out of the norm — a mass exodus of players ejected during a game due to an on-court altercation.
During the second quarter, Jessica Washington of the Kansas Jayhawks and Breigha Wilder-Cochran of the Memphis Tigers found themselves battling for the ball on the ground. With their excessive fighting for the ball, refs determined both players deserved a Flagrant 2 — automatically disqualifying both players from the remainder of the game.
The ejections did not stop there, however, as players left their benches while Washington and Wilder-Cochran were fighting. Brea Elmore also was ejected for Memphis and seven players left the Jayhawks bench including Chelsea Lott, Timeka O’Neal, Aisia Robertson, Jayde Christopher, Lisa Blair, Sydney Benoit and Caelynn Manning-Allen.
"I was disappointed obviously in the fact that we had players leave the bench,” said Head Coach Brandon Schneider to the Kansas City Star. “That is 100 percent my responsibility to make sure they're educated on that rule and the consequences of it. The unfortunate thing is we had three or four players that literally might have taken one step onto the court, and consequently, they're ejected. That's on me.”
Despite finishing the game with only six eligible players, Kansas was able to get their first win of the year behind Chayla Cheadle and McKenzie Calvert whom each tallied 21 points for Kansas.
"I'm disappointed in how we reacted to the situation, but I couldn't be prouder of the six players that were eligible, just in how they stepped up and performed,” Schneider said. “We didn't have a single player that played their natural position for 27 minutes.
We played 2-3 zone for 27 minutes and literally are reteaching some offensive things and plays in timeouts and at halftime, just to try to put some people in positions to have some success."