LSU probably wants their January 25th matchup with South Carolina back. They were up huge before the Gamecocks did what they have been doing all season long: turning in gritty second halves. Once Angel Reese fouled out of the game with just over four minutes left in regulation, LSU never adjusted. Bree Hall nailed two ginormous 3-point shots that sent LSU packing and ended a 29-game home game-winning steak.

It also extended LSU’s losing streak to South Carolina to a whopping 15 games.

South Carolina and LSU’s showdown for the SEC championship was must-see TV. It was Kim Mulkey and her national champion LSU team and Dawn Staley and her young South Carolina squad that has been defying expectations. There was a lot of chatter early on, trash talk, and tons of buckets, but a chance to win the SEC was everything fans could probably hope for in a match-up — until South Carolina started to pull away in the fourth quarter.

Milaysia Fulwiley was wrapped up by LSU’s Flaujae Johnson during a transition, leading to a foul. Several South Carolina players ran in the direction of Fulwiley, including Ashlyn Watkins, who was seemingly celebrating the foul call with her teammates. During Watkins’ celebration, she was in the path of Johnson. Johnson took exception to the celebration, pushing Watkins rather emphatically before walking in the other direction. That’s when South Carolina center Kamilla Cardoso came in to defend Watkins, pushing Johnson to the floor.

Cardoso’s shove of Flau’jae Johnson led to both benches clearing, more shoving and pushing and Johnson’s brother coming onto the court before being escorted out of the arena. The entire situation took referees almost 20 minutes to clear before penalties and ejections were assessed.

In the end, the entire LSU bench was ejected for leaving the bench area and all but one player from South Carolina’s bench was ejected. Due to the on-court mishap, ESPN initially reported that every player who was ejected would be suspended for the NCAA tournament. However, they later issued a correction that only Cardoso would be out for the first game of the NCAA tournament.

Staley went to find LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson to speak with her before she spoke with ESPN to apologize to the basketball community for what they witnessed.

Mulkey took exception to Cardoso’s push and seemed to insinuate that she should have pushed someone like Angel Reese, who is closer to her size. Reese also spoke to the media after the game, saying that they weren’t scared of South Carolina and that teams should be afraid of LSU because they were able to go toe-to-toe with the Gamecocks despite coming up short.

Kamilla Cardoso took to social media to apologize, noting that she took full responsibility for her actions.

Angel Reese took to X (formerly Twitter) to share that her “status” and a rolled ankle were the reasons she was not involved in the incident.

Before the two teams got into it, South Carolina and LSU were already jawing back and forth. Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso were also physical with each other and appeared to be trash-talking during the hard-fought contest. But, some in-depth sleuthing by fans uncovered that referees missed a hair pull from Reese on Cardoso that likely didn’t help the tension.

Per Patrick Magee of Nola.com, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey released a statement about the incident. Here’s what he said:

“The championship of the SEC Tournament was a great game and a tremendous showcase for women’s basketball as a sport, but I am highly disappointed in the incident that took place late in the game and regret that it took focus off what was otherwise a successful championship event.”

Per Chris Bumbaca of USA TODAY, Trayron Milton was charged with third-degree assault and battery and disorderly conduct for hopping the scorer’s table and entering the court after Johnson was pushed by Cardoso. Milton pushed Cardoso and an SEC employee (and allegedly stepped on the employee’s shoulders to get to the court) before being escorted off the court by a police officer.

While promoting his “How to March Madness” campaign and “Tips from the Tool Shaq” content series with Home Depot, O’Neal — who’s also Reese’s mentor — recently told For The Win that he spoke to Reese after the game, telling her she did the right thing by not being involved.

Here’s what Shaq shared with us about his conversation with Reese:

I see she’s taking a lot of flack. ‘Oh, she should have been there.’ This is not fighting. The only thing you have to fight for is to fight for your team. The game was played closely. Things like that — you don’t want them to happen. When they do happen, you just move on.

I called her and I said, ‘You did the right thing. Trust me, you did the right thing, because if would have went out there, they would have been looking for you. You and [Kamilla] Cardoso get into a shoving match. She’s already ejected. Can’t play in the next round. That would have happened to you. It would have been all your fault.’ So, she did the right thing. Kudos to her.

In a recent Facebook post, Flau’jae Johnson’s mother, Kia Brooks, shared thoughts and an Instagram video that supports claims that Flau’jae is not responsible for any part of the scuffle with South Carolina.