By Jackie Abellada
Daily Bruin Contributor
A typical crosstown rivalry match-up usually includes a little
elbowing here and some trash-talking there. But the women’s
basketball team took it to another level Sunday against USC.
With a little more than five minutes remaining in the game and
the Ladies of Troy leading by a score of 58-43, a physical
altercation transpired between Shalada Allen of UCLA and Ebony
Hoffman of USC. Both players had to be separated and restrained by
their teammates and the officials.
“Everybody was just going after the ball. And we fell. And
legs were getting tangled up. Before I knew it, everything just
blew up out of proportions,” Allen said.
The referees ejected Allen and Hoffman from the game. Hoffman
was personally escorted out of Pauley Pavilion by a police officer
while Allen remained on the UCLA bench.
Both teams declined responsibility for the incident.
“You got to remember that we were the team that was
winning and winning big,” USC head coach Chris Gobrecht said.
“Why in the world would we start anything?”
According to Gobrecht, Hoffman did not throw any punches.
Rather, she called the incident the culmination of “typical,
Bruins cheap stuff.”
Bruins head coach Kathy Olivier would beg to differ.
“From what I heard, they got tangled up and I guess they
each threw a little bit of a punch in there,” Olivier said.
“But from knowing how She-She (Allen) is, I don’t think
for a second she will do that.”
The referees officially issued a one-game suspension for both
players. The NCAA will decide today if the ruling will hold.
According to Gobrecht, her team is going to “fight that
(decision) tooth and nail.”
“Hoffman pushed Allen off of her because Allen was
punching her for goodness sakes, and that’s flat-out
wrong,” Gobrecht said. “It’ll just be one more
mistake they (referees) have made tonight.”
Gobrecht, who was visibly upset for the entire game at the
referees, was herself thrown out of the game. She received two
technical fouls minutes after the altercation.
“It was not good for the game or the conference or
anybody,” she added. “Why can’t we just play
basketball?”