Australia-Philippines FIBA game turns into insane basket-brawl

The Philippines players, left and Australian basketball players react, during the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers Monday, July 2, 2018 at the Philippine Arena in suburban Bocaue township, Bulacan province north of Manila, Philippines. (Bullit Marquez/AP)

For those who don’t believe basketball can be a violent sport, allow us to introduce you to the international game.

On Monday, during a FIBA World Cup qualifying match between Australia and the Philippines, absolute chaos broke out.

With just over four minutes left in the third quarter, and Australia up 79-48, an explosive melee erupted between the two sides that included chairs being thrown, elbows to the back of the head and even Milwaukee Bucks forward Thon Maker making Tiger Knee attempts.

Camille B. Naredo of Filipino media company ABS-CBN News was on the scene at Philippines Arena and was able to catch some of the madness live.

A better look at the throwdown comes courtesy of Ryan Northover, who recorded footage from the Fox Sports Australia broadcast of the game.

The entire fracas was started when Australian guard Chris Goulding was shoved to the floor by Roger Ray Pogoy, igniting a bench-clearing brawl that even appeared to include some of the Filipino coaching staff and trainers stomping on someone.

Even more shockingly, it doesn’t look like the Filipino side was all that remorseful for their actions at all.

In total, 13 players were ejected from the game in the aftermath, including Maker. Despite this, play was allowed to continue for a little longer leading to a hilarious situation that saw Australia playing with the standard five men on the court and the Philippines with just three.

In the end, the match was eventually forfeited by the home Filipino side with 1:57 left in the third quarter and Australia leading 89-53.

After the contest, Philippines coach Chot Reyes tried to explain his team’s actions, saying the brawl was a retaliatory result of some earlier beef started by Australia’s Daniel Kickert.

“It’s unfortunate. We didn’t want that to happen. It’s absolutely unacceptable. But the reality is Kickert was hitting our players during the warmups,” Reyes said. “He hit Carl Bryan Cruz, he hit Matthew Wright, he hit Pogoy and he hit Calvin Abueva during the warmups.”

There’s been no word yet on any further disciplinary action from FIBA, but, to his credit, Reyes is expecting punishment, such as sanctions and/or fines, to be coming down.

“It’s up to FIBA in the end, but we need to face those consequences. It is what it is,” said Reyes. “The one thing that you have to know about this team is that we’re not gonna back down.”

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