Things got out of control at the end of Utah Valley's 66-61 overtime victory over New Mexico State after a wild melee erupted that involved fans and players on the court.
Following the final buzzer, Mexico State guard K.C. Ross-Miller fired the basketball at Utah Valley's Holton Hunsaker seconds after the game ended on Thursday.
That's when things got out of control as fans rushed the court and players were involved in a scuffle.
"It was a very heated, emotional game, and if any of my guys did anything that was out of line, they will be punished to the 10th degree," New Mexico State coach Marvin Menzies said in an interview posted on the school's website, according to ESPN. "That may affect wins and losses, but they need to learn some life lessons after something like that. That is not going to happen in my program, and it's just embarrassing."
Menzies couldn't explain the cause for the fight that broke out between the co-leaders of the Western Athletic Conference.
"I don't know what exactly happened. I was kind of going over to shake hands," Menzies said via ESPN. "I want to apologize for K.C.'s actions. From what I understand, he threw the ball after the game was over and had expired. I don't know what provoked it. I mean, Hunsaker's a little chippy himself so he may have said something or done something, but you just can't respond. I mean, we showed them plenty of clips where they do things that can get underneath your skin a little bit and you've got to be tougher than that mentally, and I'm just upset that he did that."
Menzies said that Ross-Miller may be held out of the team's next game on Saturday against Bakersfield, but first the coach wanted to take a look at the video to see exactly what happened.
"I've got to look and see what happened," Menzies said per ESPN. "I don't know what suspensions are going to come down. There's going to be a lot of video to sort through on this. I think the game was over, so I don't know [if] the coming-off-the-bench rule is applied. I think when their fans stormed the court, I think it kind of ... convoluted things a little bit because some of the guys apparently said they felt threatened. Daniel [Mullings] said he actually got hit."
This was the second and final regular-season meeting between these two teams, and Mexico State won the first meeting on Feb. 1 72-49.
Utah Valley went on an 8-1 run to close out the final 2.5 minutes of the game, forcing overtime and eventually taking the game before things got crazy.
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