Things got chippy between the Chicago Sky and Connecticut Sun on Wednesday, resulting in three ejections in the Sun’s 71-62 win over the Sky.
The incident happened with 6:35 remaining in the second quarter while the Sun led 27-21. As Connecticut’s Bria Hartley and Chicago’s Rebecca Allen jockeyed for position under the basket on a rebound attempt, Allen appeared to push Hartley in the back. Hartley didn’t appreciate the contact and shoved Allen down to the ground. Allen grabbed Hartley’s jersey as she fell on the court at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
As referees attempted to separate the players involved in the skirmish, Sky guard Ariel Atkins jumped to her teammate’s defense and pushed Hartley, appearing to make contact with an official in the process.
As a result, Hartley, Allen and Atkins were all ejected. Hartley was 0-of-3 from the field and 0-of-1 from the 3-point line in 10 minutes of work before hitting the showers early. Atkins ended the night with five points in 9 minutes for the Sky, while Allen was scoreless in 6 minutes (0-of-1 FG).
It wasn’t the first incident of the night between Allen and Hartley. Earlier in the game, Allen was elbowed in the face by Hartley and a foul was not called. Sky head coach Tyler Marsh said the unchecked contact escalated to the ejections.
‘It was unfortunate. I think things like that have a tendency to happen when there’s not a control put on the game prior to. There’s usually an incident that goes overlooked that leads to something like that,’ he said in his postgame remarks. ‘(Allen) clearly got elbowed in the face right in front of the ref and it wasn’t called. Then other things ensued. It’s unfortunate for us. Two players that play high-quality, high-valuable minutes for us.’
Following the matchup, Sky forward Angel Reese posted, ‘ARIEL A REAL ONE. BEEN.’ Reese was ruled out of Wednesday’s matchup due to a back injury.
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