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South Carolina and LSU had to finish the SEC title game without a bench after a wild scuffle led to multiple ejections

The top-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks went into their SEC tournament final with the LSU Tigers looking to go into the women’s NCAA tournament with an undefeated record. They ended up simply hoping to finish the game with enough players.

With just over two minutes to go in the South Carolina’s eventual 79-72 win, an intentional foul on LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson led to a scuffle at midcourt that saw players leaving the bench area and even family members jumping out of the stands and onto the court.

This was the scene in Greenville:

As the scuffle escalated, South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso pushed Johnson, leading to Cardoso’s ejection from the game (and suspension for the first round of the NCAA tournament).

After that shove, Johnson’s brother jumped onto the court and was quickly escorted away by a police officer.

In all, the entire LSU bench was ejected for leaving the bench area during a fight but not participating. South Carolina also had all but one bench player ejected. Initially, the broadcast reported that every player who was ejected would be suspended for the NCAA tournament, but it would later issue a correction to clarify that just Cardoso would face a suspension.

Still, the altercation made for an usual ending to such a high-quality matchup.

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