Ewu’S Levy Given One-Game Suspension
The Big Sky Conference, in a surprise decision announced late Wednesday afternoon, suspended Eastern Washington’s Will Levy and Portland State’s Matt Elliott for Friday’s night game between the two schools in Portland.
According to league officials, the one-game suspensions stem from a pair of second-half altercations between the two players during Eastern’s 91-61 rout of PSU Saturday night in Cheney.
Although the officials working the game did not whistle either player for an infraction at the time, a review of the game video prompted league officials to hand down the suspensions.
“The two players were involved in an altercation that met an applied criteria used (by the league) to evaluate player conduct,” Big Sky chief of staff Ron Loghry said in a printed statement released by the league office. “Neither reaction was what we consider a basketball play and had no place in the Big Sky Conference.”
Eric Capper, the Big Sky’s assistant commissioner in charge of public relations, said the matter was brought to the league’s attention by a source other than the officials who worked the game.
“We’re not sure how nobody saw it,” said Capper, who did not say who notified the league about the incident. “It was kind of an ongoing thing.”
According to Capper, video of the game showed Elliott, a 6-foot-8 junior forward, “throwing a punch” to the chest of Levy while trying to front Eastern’s 6-8 senior forward in the post. PSU, according to Capper, cleared the ensuing rebound and while trailing the Vikings’ fast break, Levy apparently retaliated by “throwing a forearm-type elbow” to Elliott’s face.
EWU, which leads the Big Sky Conference by a game over Cal State Northridge and Montana, would seem to be hurt the most by the suspensions. Levy, a starter in the early season, is averaging 7.7 points and a team-high 6.5 rebounds as the Eagles’ sixth man. Elliott, a firstyear transfer, is averaging 4.8 points and 2.2 rebounds.
Neither played a key role, statistically, in Saturday’s game.