NDSU, Oral Roberts Players and Coaches Fight in Handshake Line

Oral Roberts got upset about a last second dunk made by NDSU win an 18-point win

North Dakota State University beat Oral Roberts 77–59 on Thursday night. A last-second dunk made by NDSU’s Maleeck Harden-Hayes seemed to upset the Oral Roberts team, which spilled over into the postgame handshakes.

Oral Roberts head coach Paul Mills began yelling at NDSU players in the line, which caused a bigger fight between the players and coaches.

Most of the players and coaches attempted to hold one another back during the scuffle, but the shoving match ended up lasting over a minute.

Players attempted to hold Oral Roberts’s Elijah Lufile back and head to the locker room, until he freed himself from their grasp and tried to run back to the NDSU players. He was taken down by a teammate and then taken off the court.

Following the debacle, Mills tweeted an apology to NDSU and its head coach Dave Richman.

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 also apologized to Mills and Oral Roberts during his postgame interview.

”You see the emotions of the game. You saw two teams playing until the end and some things spilled over,“ Richman said, via InForum’s Mike McFeely. ”That's not anything that I want this program to be a part of. There are situations that are going to be learning experiences for myself and our group as we move forward. 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.“

The Summit League has not commented on the situation yet.