4 GWU women's basketball players suspended following brawl with TCU

WASHINGTON - The George Washington Colonials women's basketball team will be without four of its players Friday when the Manhattan College Jaspers come to town. 

The Atlantic 10 Conference issued suspensions following the fight that broke out between GWU players and the TCU women's basketball team on Monday. 

The school's Director of Athletics Tanya Vogel released a statement Wednesday addressing the incident.

"We learned today that we will be without four of our student-athletes for Friday's game. This is the unfortunate result of good people getting caught up in a bad moment," the statement reads. "While we believe that many students were trying to defend themselves and deescalate the situation, we are not proud of this moment. Nevertheless, as all things are within the learning environment that higher education provides, we will learn from this and move forward to get better every single day. As there is no appeal process and the rules are very narrow, we accept the decision while resting assured that our remaining players will compete with passion and intensity on Friday, just as they did on Monday. We are proud of their determination and look forward to competing."

A total of eight players were ejected after the brawl; five players from GWU; three players from TCU. 

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Essence Brown, Nya Robinson, Jayla Thornton, Caia Loving, and Nya Lok were the GWU players tossed from the game, however, the school's statement mentions just four players will miss the game on Friday. It does not clarify which four players won't be available. 

On Monday, TCU forward Bella Cravens' hair was pulled during a battle for a rebound with GWU guard Essence Brown. It's unclear whether Brown intentionally pulled her hair or if it just got tangled during play. Nevertheless, Cravens was upset and tensions boiled over. 

The two ladies came face-to-face, punches started being thrown from both parties, and then other teammates got involved. 

GWU ended up losing the game 58 to 70.