Georgetown, China reps meet Friday after on-court brawl

UPDATE: ESPN is reporting on Friday that coach John Thompson III and some of his players met with players from the Bayi team. The Washington Post's Gene Wang tweets: JTIII, Hollis Thompson and Jason Clark met with Bayi Coach and several players this morning before coming to Shanghai.

The Georgetown men's basketball team got into a brawl with a team from Beijing while on an exhibition trip in China.

Here is a statement from Georgetown coach John Thompson III, who pulled his team off the floor with 9 1/2 minutes left and the score tied.

"Tonight, two great teams played a very competitive game that unfortunately ended after heated exchanges with both teams. We sincerely regret that this situation occurred.

We remain grateful for the opportunity our student-athletes are having to engage in a sport they love here in China, while strengthening their understanding of a nation we respect and admire at Georgetown University."

The Washington Post's Gene Wang first tweeted about the incident. Chairs were being thrown. Players and coaches had to dodge water bottles hurled from stands.

Here's a video:

Thompson pulled his team off the court after fans threw bottles at them.

Wang, who attended the game, later wrote that after Hu Ke fouled Georgetown's Jason Clark the two got into a shoving match and both benches emptied. Chinese police were on hand but did not try to break up the fights.

This from a Georgetown message board:

Two minutes into the fourth, they were pressing full court, trapped one of our guards (I forget who it was), and then must have pushed or punched him on the ground after he made the outlet pass, because then there was a shoving match and then a bit of a fight, and then the whole thing set off. He tried to get away as quickly as possible as the Chinese players sort of converged on him, and then benches cleared, and then people on the Chinese bench started picking up chairs. Everyone on the other side of the court started fighting as well. Brawl spread all over the court, and then off the court. After it kicked off it immediately became possible for the crowd to get involved, and then they did. As we tried to get the team off the court, bottles (plastic ones, thankfully) came out of the crowd at the team and everyone left. Security was there (sort of), but it was more equivalent to mall cop-quality security rather than actual security. The Georgetown staff wanted the security to get on the floor, but honestly these guys didn't have a clue what to do. They escorted the whole alumni contingent out fairly quickly after that. Game over, 64-64 (following another intentional foul).

Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomCollegeMensBasketball-TopStories/~3/2ynnM7U8FuQ/1