The Sun Belt Conference has notified us that student-athletes Amyah Sutton, Daniela Gonzalez and Cordasia Harris have been suspended for Thursday's Sun Belt Conference Tournament game against Texas State as a result of the incident that occurred during Wednesday's game against Coastal Carolina. This suspension occurred after the officiating crew ruled that the incident was classified as a fight.
 
The University of South Alabama does not condone fighting under any circumstance. The incident that took place during Wednesday's game is extremely unfortunate and unacceptable. We will use this as an opportunity to learn and grow in our efforts to become better in the future.
 
That being said, I am the first to acknowledge that college basketball officials have an extremely challenging and thankless job. We are greatly concerned about the official that was injured during the game. However, after an extensive internal review, I do not believe the actions of all three of our student-athletes rose to the level of being classified as fighting as defined by the NCAA rule book. This judgement has negatively impacted the tournament experience of our suspended student-athletes and stripped them of limited opportunities to compete in the postseason.
 
Though I strongly disagree with the judgement of the officials, we will accept the decision from the Sun Belt Conference and turn our focus to supporting coach Jackson and her team in tomorrow's tournament game against Texas State.