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A confrontation between two players in the postgame handshake line following Bowling Green's win over Memphis on Thursday night in the Women's NIT has resulted in a member of the Memphis team being charged with assault, according to the Bowling Green State University Police Department. Bowling Green is also conducting its own review of the incident. "Violence is never acceptable and our priority remains the health, safety and support of our student-athlete, who is recovering and doing well" Bowling Green Athletics said in a statement Friday. "This is an active investigation in conjunction with the City of Bowling Green Prosecutor, and no further comment is available at this time." As the teams walked toward center court following Bowling Green's 73-60 win in the round of 16 game, Memphis' Jamirah Shutes stopped to talk with Falcons player Elissa Brett. After a short conversation, Shutes appears to throw a punch at Brett's face. Brett fell toward the scorer's table and onto the sideline. There was no immediate word about what caused the confrontation or if any player was seriously injured. Bowling Green coach Robyn Fralick didn't directly comment on the incident after the game, saying only that they were "figuring all those things out" as far as what happened in the handshake line. Memphis' athletics department said Friday that the incident was "extremely unfortunate and certainly not consistent with, or representative of, our expectations for our programs and student-athletes." "Because the incident occurred after the game, jurisdiction falls in the hands of local authorities, and we are cooperating fully with their process," the statement said. "To be respectful of that process, we will not comment further until it is complete." Later Friday, the school announced that coach Katrina Merriweather was resigning to take a job at another school. The statement, posted on social media, said that the coach had decided to move on before the incident in the game Thursday night. The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that Shutes, who leads the Tigers in scoring, took an elbow to her face with 24 seconds left in the opening quarter and played just eight minutes in the first half. She returned to start the second half. Shutes, a fifth-year player who finished with 13 points in her final game with the Tigers, was a second-team All-AAC selection this season. Brett scored 15 points in the win. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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