USC basketball players reportedly involved in Spokane bar brawl

EXPOSITION PARK (KTLA) —The University of Southern California is investigating reports that two of its basketball players were involved in a major brawl in Spokane Sunday night.

The fight happened sometime after midnight in Spokane, where the team was spending the night.

USC had played Saturday afternoon in nearby Pullman, Wash., losing to Washington State 76-51.

According to witnesses, two USC basketball players got into some kind of an argument with a man who works at a sushi bar.

Words were exchanged, and the altercation escalated. People who were there say one of the players sucker punched a man and also beat up a woman.

In the end, four people were hurt and had to go to the hospital.

One person reportedly suffered a broken nose and another had a broken jaw. There are photos of one woman with a bloody lip.

Spokane police say they are investigating the incident, but they haven’t officially identified anyone from the USC basketball team as being involved in it.

No one has been arrested in connection with the fight, police said.

But a bartender who saw the brawl says the people involved in the fight were telling everyone they were from USC.

“Seven-foot tall, 260-pound center for USC looking drunk, looking belligerent, basically calling out our guys, admitting to what he had done including hitting two women,” Noel Macapagal recalled.

USC has not suspended any of its players. Sports Information Director Tim Tessalone told a Spokane newspaper that the university is looking into the matter.

“We are just learning of this report… We are just kind of looking into it and trying to find out the facts,” Tessalone said.