The Games People Play, The Penalties They Pay

The latest dispatches from the front lines of combative sport:

In La Crosse, Wis., a 20-year-old University of Wisconsin La Crosse hockey player was arrested after his coach said the student attacked him upon learning he was being cut from the team, police said.

Police arrested the unidentified player Thursday for battering Terence Brand, 26, coach of the university hockey team. According to the police report, Brand was attacked about 3 p.m. in his office at Green Island Ice Arena.

The student apparently entered the coach’s office and asked why he had been cut, police said. Brand said he was opening mail and talking to the student when the player punched him in the face.

The player was ordered to appear in court on March 4.

The Ohio Valley Conference suspended three players because of a fight that broke out during the Morehead State-Youngstown State basketball game last Monday.

Commissioner Jim Delany also censured and reprimanded players from both teams who left the bench during the melee.

Youngstown State’s John Robinson was suspended for the next four games, and his teammate, Jim Gilmore, drew a six-game suspension.

Jeff Thornberry, a freshman guard, was barred from playing in Morehead State’s next two games, the commissioner said.

Delany’s statement said Robinson was reprimanded for “throwing an intentional and flagrant elbow” in Thornberry’s face.

Delany said that Gilmore crossed the court after the initial fight and struck Morehead State’s Talbert Turner “in the face with a flagrant, intentional elbow.”

The NBA fined Rick Mahorn of the Detroit Pistons $3,000 and Tom Chambers of the Seattle SuperSonics $500 for fighting in a game at Detroit Wednesday.

Rod Thorn, NBA vice president of operations, said in New York that a review of the incident showed that Mahorn struck Chambers in the face with an elbow and Chambers responded by swinging at Mahorn, and a brief fight followed.