Australia and the Philippines had one of the craziest basketball brawls in the history of the sport on Monday.
Midway through the third quarter of a FIBA World Cup qualifier, all hell broke loose. Australia’s Chris Goulding was hit with two elbows, so Daniel Kickert retaliated with an elbow of his own and it was on. Thon Maker of the Milwaukee Bucks came in with two flying knees, Filipino fans were throwing chairs, Andray Blatche sent haymakers flying at anyone he could see.
By the time the dust cleared, 13 players were ejected: Nine from the Philippines, four from Australia. The game resumed playing 5-on-3 before the Philippines forced a forfeit by having two more players foul out.
Oh my god. He threw a chair! #Boomers pic.twitter.com/9T5bs5VLou
— Ricky Mangidis (@rickm18) July 2, 2018
This sort of behaviour would have you locked up if it happened on the street #Boomers pic.twitter.com/CJH7itHph6
— Ricky Mangidis (@rickm18) July 2, 2018
There has been a huge influx of Australian talent into the college basketball ranks in recent years, and this team had six players that played Division I basketball on it: Daniel Kickert and Matthew Dellavedova (Saint Mary’s), Anthony Drmic (Boise State), Angus Brandt (Oregon State), Kevin Lisch (Saint Louis) and Nathan Sobey (Wyoming).
The Philippines also had three former college basketball players: Matthew Wright (St. Bonaventure), Japeth Aguilar (Western Kentucky) and Gabe Norwood (George Mason). Norwood was a member of the George Mason team that played in the 2006 Final Four.