BEIJING — What was supposed to be a friendly exhibition between the Georgetown basketball team and a Chinese pro team descended into a chaotic brawl Thursday, as players threw punches and chairs at one another.
According to the Washington Post, the benches-clearing melee erupted in the fourth quarter as Georgetown played the Bayi Rockets of the Chinese Basketball Association.
A Georgetown University spokesman told CBS Sports no one was injured, calling it a “tense situation.”
The game was unusually physical, with 28 fouls assessed to Georgetown and 11 to the Rockets, according to the report. When Georgetown guard Jason Clark was fouled hard by Rockets forward-center Hu Ke, the two got into a shoving match, and the bedlam began.
Head coach John Thompson III pulled his team off the court as fans threw plastic water bottles at his players.
The fight broke out during an exhibition game at the Beijing Olympic Basketball Arena Thursday. (REUTERS)
Tensions were reportedly building throughout the contest. Earlier in the game, a Rockets player yelled at Thompson during a timeout, and later in the second half Georgetown forward Nate Lubick exchanged words with a Rockets player.
“Tonight two great team played a very competitive game that unfortunately ended after heated exchanges with both teams,” Thompson said in a statement obtained by the Post. “We sincerely regret that this situation occurred.”
At the time of the fight, the game was tied at 64 with nine minutes remaining.
According to the report, Chinese police officers at Olympic Sports Center Stadium made no attempt to break up the fight, leaving the referees and coaches to bring the players under control.
The scuffle came one day after US Vice President Joe Biden attended the Hoyas’ game against the Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons.
“The team’s two-week visit to China reflects an ongoing push to expand people-to-people exchanges between our two countries, as well as an effort to strengthen the US-China relationship through sport,” Biden’s deputy press secretary, Amy Dudley, wrote on the White House blog Wednesday.
Georgetown was scheduled to go to Shanghai Friday, but it is unclear whether they will continue with the goodwill tour.