A trio of WNBA players earned the boot Wednesday night following an altercation during the Sun’s 71-62 home win over the Sky.
Connecticut’s Bria Harley and Chicago’s Rebecca Allen each received ejections for starting the scuffle. At the same time, the Sky’s Ariel Atkins’ night ended early “for being an escalator” after shoving Harley and touching a referee, according to crew chief Angelia Suffern as reported by ESPN.
The situation unfolded early in the second quarter when the Sun’s Saniya Rivers and Hartley battled Allen for a rebound, which the former corralled.
Hartley and Allen tangled arms, and in the battle for the ball, Hartley seemingly shoved Allen to the floor.
Allen attempted to grab Hartley as she fell before later taking a hold of her jersey for several seconds while her opponent stood over her.
Players from both sides eventually made their way over, with Atkins running full steam into a referee while she attempted to confront Hartley.
While the referee attempted to distance Atkins from Harley, she nudged the official.
Atkins and Hartley then yelled at one another as the tensions started to calm down.
The skirmish reportedly stopped play for roughly 10 minutes.
Hartley and Allen both did not score in their 10 minutes before being ejected, while Atkins had five points.
Sky coach Tyler Marsh called the situation “unfortunate.”
“I think things like that tend to happen when there’s not a control put on the game before — there’s usually an incident that goes overlooked that leads to something like that,” Marsh said. “I think [Allen] got elbowed in the face right in front of the ref. It wasn’t called. Then, other things ensued.
“It’s unfortunate for us. Two players who play high-quality, high-value minutes for us were down for most of the game. It was tough. I thought the team rallied back, fought hard to finish it out, but it’s unfortunate.”
