Duncan Powell, the Providence forward who started a brawl in Saturday’s game against St. John’s, has been suspended three games by the Big East, it was announced early Sunday evening.
Early in the second half of the 17th-ranked Johnnies’ win over Providence at Amica Mutual Pavilion, Powell took down Bryce Hopkins with a clothesline, inciting a fight.
Hopkins got up and shoved Powell, who later took a swing at St. John’s forward Dillon Mitchell.
It led to six ejections, including one for Powell.
He received an automatic one game suspension for fighting and two extra games.
No other suspensions were given.
“We didn’t initiate anything. We teach toughness is not turning the ball over, creating steals, getting offensive rebounds,” Red Storm coach Rick Pitino said after the game. “That’s what we believe toughness is.
It was already a charged-up environment before the skirmish.
Providence fans chanted “f–k Bryce Hopkins” throughout the contest in his return to Friartown.
St. John’s won the game, 79-69.
In the release, the Big East said that “game officials determined that Powell engaged in additional combative actions that constituted a fighting act subsequent to the flagrant foul.”
After the fight, which occurred with 14:25 left in the second half, St. John’s outscored Providence by 11 points the rest of the way to win its 11th consecutive game and set a program record with a 10th Big East road win in a row.
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