The steal and dunk by North Dakota State’s Maleeck Harden-Hayes at the end of their game against Oral Roberts on Thursday was meaningless by any stretch of the word.
Nevermind the game was well out of reach, with NDSU (-1.5) dominating their Summit League foe by 18 points, but the bucket didn’t even count. The dunk came after the buzzer.
Still, that may not have mattered to a few on the Oral Roberts side, who seemed to take offense to how the game ended. Head coach Paul Mills apparently exchanged words with NDSU coach Dave Richman as the teams shook hands, and chaos ensued.
A last-second dunk resulted in words being exchanged & a scuffle between @ORUMBB & NDSU during the postgame handshake.
Paul Mills exchanged words with NDSU coaches and players.
Elijah Lufile was involved in the scuffle and had to be restrained from re-entering the fray. pic.twitter.com/Q5ZcHFD32D
— Cayden McFarland (@caydenmc) February 18, 2022
It’s safe to say that escalated QUICKLY, with Oral Roberts’ Elijah Lufile even appearing to come out of the scrum with a bloodied lip. Absolutely wild, and really all over nothing.
According to InForum, both teams just played hard until the end. Oral Roberts continued to press and foul behind 18 points. NDSU continued to score.
Mills issued a statement on Twitter saying he was saddened by what happened, but stopped short of taking any responsibility.
I am very saddened about what transpired at the conclusion of our game tonight v NDSU. ORU nor NDSU want to be represented in a negative light. Dave Richman & I have spoken & I have the utmost respect for the Bison program. Congratulations to the Bison on a dominant performance.
— Paul Mills (@CoachMills) February 18, 2022
Richman was remorseful for the scene, but said his players did what they’re asked to do: play to the end.
“Anything from our end, I will apologize to Oral Roberts and Coach Mills. But I also asked our guys to play until the end and we played to the end tonight,” Richman said.
