BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — A Memphis Tigers women's basketball player is now charged with assault after a confrontation in the postgame handshake line following Bowling Green's win over Memphis on Thursday night in the Women's NIT.
According to our sister station WTOL in an update Friday, Bowling Green State University athletics released a statement saying Memphis' Jamirah Shutes has been charged with assault.
"Following Thursday’s unwarranted physical incident after the WNIT home game, the Bowling Green State University Police Department has charged a member of the Memphis Women’s Basketball team with assault," the statement reads. "Additionally, BGSU Athletics is conducting its own review. Violence is never acceptable and our priority remains the health, safety and support of our student-athlete, who is recovering and doing well. This is an active investigation in conjunction with the City of Bowling Green Prosecutor, and no further comment is available at this time."
Thursday night as the teams walked toward center court following Bowling Green's 73-60 win in the Round of 16 game, Shutes stopped to talk with Falcons' player Elissa Brett. After a short conversation, Shutes appears to throw a punch at Brett's face. Brett fell toward the scorer's table and onto the sideline.
There was no immediate word about what caused the confrontation or if any player was seriously injured.
Memphis' athletics department said Friday that the incident was "extremely unfortunate and certainly not consistent with, or representative of, our expectations for our programs and student-athletes."
"Because the incident occurred after the game, jurisdiction falls in the hands of local authorities, and we are cooperating fully with their process," the statement said. "To be respectful of that process, we will not comment further until it is complete."
Bowling Green said in a earlier statement Thursday night that the incident was in the hands of the campus police.
"The incident that took place following tonight's home WNIT game has been turned over to the BGSU Police Department," the school said. "Bowling Green State University Athletics does not make comments about active police investigations. Our priority is with the health, safety and support of our student-athletes."
Bowling Green coach Robyn Fralich didn't directly comment on the incident after the game, saying only that they were "figuring all those things out," as far as what happened in the handshake line.
The Commercial Appeal reported that Shutes, who leads the Tigers in scoring, took an elbow to her face with 24 seconds left in the opening quarter and played just eight minutes in the first half. She returned to start the second half.
Shutes, a fifth-year player who finished with 13 points in her final game with the Tigers, was a second-team All-AAC selection this season.
Brett scored 15 points in the win.