Elbow Flies, Oklahoma Wins By Forfeit

Oklahoma was awarded a rare forfeit victory Monday when tempers flared after one of its players was knocked to the floor by an elbow to the head at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Ramon Gomez of American University of Puerto Rico hit the Sooners’ Tim Heskett with 5:02 to play in the first half of an opening-round game at the Puerto Rico Holiday Classic.

When Oklahoma coaches ran to Heskett, who was on the floor in front of American’s bench, some pushing and shoving started among coaches and players and referee Eric Harmon, intent on keeping order, declared the 23rd-ranked Sooners, who were leading 39-10 at the time, 2-0 winners by forfeit.

“Our kids had been coming back to the huddle saying there were some cheap shots going on,” Oklahoma Coach Kelvin Sampson said. “When that happened at the five-minute mark, the kid [Gomez] swung at Tim and missed him, then stopped and turned around and premeditated the next one. He really connected. Tim got a wallop on his jaw. That was solid.”

Sampson said Heskett may have a concussion and is under the care of a team physician.

The incident occurred when the Sooners (7-1) were in transition, with Heskett trailing the play. Gomez, a 6-foot-1 guard, then hit Heskett in front of the American bench.

Sampson quickly came to his player’s side, with assistant coaches and several reserve players in tow. Screaming quickly escalated to shoving, as Heskett lay dazed on the court.

American’s Oscar Chiamarillo, an ineligible player from last year’s team and now a student assistant coach, came after Sampson but the sides were separated without further scuffling.

But Harmon had seen enough. He wasted little time in awarding the game to Oklahoma and sent the teams to the locker rooms.

“The coaches were about to get into it,” Harmon said.

American Coach Rafael Torres said there had been some jostling between Gomez and Heskett prior to the elbow.

“On the other side of the court, their player [Heskett] was hitting Gomez and the referee saw that but didn’t do anything,” he said. “Gomez was mad at him [Heskett]. When they were coming down court they were very close together, and Gomez hit him with the elbow. Then the coach from the other team came to our bench and was going after Gomez. All of their team came to our bench.”

Torres said Gomez will not play for American (0-6) in today’s game against St. Joseph’s.

The NCAA said its statistics department does not keep records of games that were forfeited because of fighting. However, it is highly unusual for such a thing to happen.

In 1991, a brawl halted a game between Chicago State and Illinois State. In all, 10 Chicago State players were ejected, and Illinois State won by forfeit.

In 1972, in one of the ugliest incidents in sports history, a brawl brought a premature end to a Minnesota-Ohio State game, sent three players to the hospital and resulted in season-ending suspensions for two Minnesota players.

OTHER GAMES

Kris Weems scored 20 points to lead No. 6 Stanford to an 82-58 rout of Elon College (3-6) at Palo Alto. . . . Lamont Long scored 28 points for No. 11 New Mexico (8-0) in a 90-46 victory over McNeese State (1-7) at Albuquerque. . . . Harold Jamison made all eight of his shots and scored 19 points to lead No. 16 Clemson (10-1) to a 72-47 victory over South Carolina State (4-5) at Clemson, S.C.

WOMEN

Stephanie White-McCarty scored 33 points for No. 3 Purdue (8-1) in an 84-76 victory over No. 20 Florida (9-4) at Gainesville, Fla. . . . Ruth Riley scored 18 points to lead No. 7 Notre Dame (9-1) to a 75-64 victory over Michigan State (6-4) at East Lansing, Mich. . . . Lauren Ashbaugh scored 18 points to help California (5-2) to an 80-75 win over No. 9 Colorado State (12-1) at Oakland. . . . Angie Braziel scored 20 points to lead No. 10 Texas Tech (8-1) to a 71-38 rout of James Madison (5-5) at Honolulu. . . . Helen Darling scored 20 points for No. 12 Penn State (8-1) in an 84-53 rout of Temple (4-5) at Philadelphia. . . . Amy Wetzel scored 16 points for No. 17 Virginia Tech (9-0) in a 66-57 victory over George Mason (3-5) at Fairfax, Va. . . . Monick Foote scored 22 points to help No. 23 Virginia (6-2) to a 96-56 rout of Radford (1-9) at Charlottesville, Va. . . . Katie Pursley scored 15 points to help No. 25 Santa Clara (9-1) to a 63-52 victory over Denver (3-9) at Denver.