FIBA BRAWL Between Philippines and Australia, Hilarious Tweets You Need To See

Punches thrown and chairs hurled in brawl at Philippines-Australia FIBA World Cup qualifier

Bin Bug/ Flickr

Basketball fanatics surely watched the game between the Philippines and Australia closely as it turned into an unanticipated Kung Fu match. The FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers came to a brawl midway through the third quarter when a bench-clearing FIBA rumble suddenly broke out. This resulted in the ejection of 13 players.

What happened?

The game was stopped in the third quarter after punches, kicks, and shoves were exchanged from both sides. Australia was winning the game at the time, with a 79-48 lead over the home team. The brawl started when Daniel Kickert of Australia got Roger Pogoy with a blindside hit. In fact, both players were already at each other’s throat for the majority of the game.

From there, it quickly escalated to a free-for-all when Jayson Castro retaliated with a punch and when Andray Blatche was seen shoving an Australian player. Gilas Pilipinas players who were at the bench also got involved at that point including Calvin Abueva, Matthew Wright, and Carl Bryan Cruz.

In addition, Thon Maker of Milwaukee, who is playing his second game for Australia, was seen aiming a kick at Gilas players which included Terrence Romeo. Matthew Wright was spotted chasing an Australian player all the way to the other end of the court hitting him with another punch.

FIBA Brawl Philippines vs Australia, Twitterverse reacts

Despite the shocking event , Twitterverse has some funny reactions about what went down. (Scroll down for tweets)

After the incident, the officials had yet to make sanctions. The referees at the game were seen leaving the court to review the brawl at the outside broadcasting van. The crowd at the Philippine Arena expressed their full support for the national team, chanting on Abueva and cheering for Pogoy while booing Australian players whenever they were shown in the big screen. “Ginebra!,” “ Gilas, Gilas!” were the chants that enveloped the arena while the crowd waited for the official’s decision.

Overall…

In the end, 13 players were ejected. From Gilas Pilipinas players Japeth Aguilar, Jeth Rosario, Roger Ray Pogoy, Terrence Bill Romeo, Matthew Wright, Calvin Abueva, Andray Blatche, Carl Bryan Cruz, and Jayson Castro were disqualified. On the other hand, Maker, Daniel Kickert, Nathan Sobey, and Chris Goulding were ejected from Australia.

For now, both teams have advanced, but FIBA will further investigate.