Tempers Erupt, Police Have To Get Involved After No. 12 Nevada Suffers Road Loss
You can forgive Utah State fans for being a bit excited following their team’s 81-76 home victory over No. 12 Nevada on Saturday.
Not only was it the Aggies’ sixth straight win, good enough to move them into first place in the Mountain West Conference, but it was also Utah State’s first victory over a ranked opponent since 2007.
Aggies fans stormed the court after the win, which apparently led to tempers flaring from some Nevada team personnel who had to be ushered off the court, according to ESPN.
One video of the postgame scene shows Nevada forward Jordan Caroline being restrained by staffers after he appeared to punch through the casing of a fire extinguisher, sending pieces of glass to the hallway floor.
He then begins cursing out someone off-camera and had to be held back.
WARNING: The following video contains vulgar language that some viewers may find offensive.
Wow! Emotions running high after the Utah State vs Nevada game. This is incredible. @KUTV2News (WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE) pic.twitter.com/mFl7wIP6W9
— Jake Edmonds (@JakeKUTV) March 3, 2019
“Several members of the Nevada coaching staff could be heard on video, with at least one assistant yelling at police officers,” ESPN reported. “Nevada alleged that fans touched Wolf Pack players as they left the court and that a Utah State assistant coach used profane language toward the team after the game.”
“Where’s that f—ing urgency when a player’s getting touched by the fans,” someone, apparently a Nevada staffer, can be heard saying in the video.
“That’s not happened one time since we’ve been in this league that somebody said ‘f— you’ to a whole line,” another Nevada staffer says.
Another staffer then gets in the face of a police officer and screams. It’s hard to hear exactly what he says, but he appears to be accusing police of not taking action after someone was “touching our f—ing players.” In response to the outburst, police officers appear to usher the Nevada personnel down the hallway.
No Nevada team personnel were made available to reporters following the loss.
“We are working with officials from the Mountain West Conference and Utah State to gather more information about the events that occurred this evening in Logan,” a Nevada spokesperson told ESPN.
Utah State’s athletic director also said he had talked with a Mountain West commissioner and Nevada’s athletic director to determine if there will be any repercussions.
As for the actual game, Utah State controlled throughout and held a lead for the last 30 minutes of the contest, according to The Associated Press.
Utah State’s Sam Merrill played the entire game for the third straight contest and led all players with 29 points.
Caroline’s postgame outburst overshadowed what he accomplished during the game. The senior eclipsed the 2,000 career points threshold, making him “just the third active Division I player to have 2,000 career points and 1,100 career rebounds,” according to the AP.
Utah State improved to 17-101 all-time against AP top 25 teams. This was the Aggies’ first victory over a ranked team since they beat No. 10 Nevada in the 2007 Western Athletic Conference Tournament.
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