A UT Arlington Player Chucked The Ball At A Grand Canyon Player For Running Up The Score With A Windmill Dunk

Grand Canyon punched its ticket to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on Saturday night with a rather emphatic win over UT Arlington in the WAC tournament final.

The Lopes lead got trimmed to as few as three in the closing minutes, but Grand Canyon finished the game on a 19-7 run to earn an 89-74 win. Even in what became a lopsided victory, there was still some drama late thanks to a kerfuffle that started when Collin Moore put an exclamation point on GCU’s win with a windmill dunk with three seconds to play. UT Arlington’s players took exception to Moore not simply running out the clock, with Akili Vining giving him a hip check and Phillip Russell taking the ball and chucking at him as he took it out for the inbound after the dunk.

Both Vining and Russell were given technical fouls, with Moore making three of the four free throws, and because Russell stepped onto the court to pelt Moore with the inbound pass, it was also a turnover. After the free throws, the Lopes would actually run out the clock, putting an end to the game without any more shenanigans.

Honestly, it was a great job by all involved not to have this turn into a brawl, as Grand Canyon’s coaching staff quickly popped up from the bench to keep everyone seated and to instruct the players on the floor to simply walk away. Meanwhile, UT Arlington’s guys were fine with having made their frustrations felt with a little push and a ball rifled at Moore’s hip and walked away themselves.