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Kansas and Kansas State Brawl in a Blowout

The scene at the end of the Kansas State-Kansas rivalry game on Tuesday night was chaotic, as a brawl spilled into the crowd and a player briefly brandished a stool.

But the scene a few minutes later might have been even more unusual, as 10 players trooped back onto the court after initially leaving, just to play the last one-tenth of a second of a blowout that ended with Kansas winning, 81-60, in Lawrence, Kan.

The trouble started with five seconds remaining and Kansas’ Silvio De Sousa dribbling out the clock, which was hardly a surprise as host Kansas was ranked No. 3 and Kansas State had a losing record at 8-9.

DaJuan Gordon of Kansas State jumped in for a steal and headed to the basket for a last-second layup. De Sousa chased him down and blocked the layup from behind. When he was done, he stood over the fallen Gordon and had a word with him.

That sparked shoving and punching, and both benches cleared. Fans seated in the area behind the basket scrambled away to avoid getting caught up in the fracas. At one point, De Sousa picked up a stool and held it over his head, although in the end no one seemed to be hurt.

Still, fighting and leaving the bench are serious rule violations and discipline is expected. All 10 players on the floor at the time of the incident were ejected, although that penalty seemed insubstantial as there was so little time left on the clock.

But surprisingly, there was more play to come. Calm was eventually restored on court, and the teams headed for the locker room, but not for long. The referees brought five nonejected players from each team back on the court and put a tenth of a second on the clock so that Kansas State could shoot technical free throws, to the vocal displeasure of the home Kansas fans. Pierson McAtee made one, making the final score, 81-60, instead of 81-59.

The technicals were such an afterthought that many box scores of the game did not include them and had not been corrected even by Wednesday morning.

That late point did not affect betting on the game. Kansas easily covered the 14½-point spread and the game went well over the total of 126 points.

Jeff Long, the athletic director for Kansas, said the schools and conference would review the brawl to determine consequences, saying, “There is no place for this conduct in college athletics.”

As is often the case, the brawl was the result of several moments that built on one another. De Sousa may have expected to dribble out the game, only to be unexpectedly stripped. Gordon may have expected an easy layup, only to be blocked. The elation or disappointment of a blowout game against a rival may have fueled emotions.

Kansas Coach Bill Self did not object to the steal that began the sequence of events.

“If you have the lead and the other team quits guarding, obviously you don’t go score,” he said. But “if the team is behind,” as Kansas State was, “I don’t think you should take total offense to anything.”

“Certainly the way Silvio reacted to him taking his ball, going down and blocking the shot, that’s all fair game,” Self added. “What transpired after that is obviously what set everything off.”

De Sousa was playing in the game only because he won an appeal of a suspension with the N.C.A.A. A consultant for Adidas had testified that he made payments to De Sousa’s guardian to encourage him to play for Kansas. De Sousa sat out last season before winning his appeal, shortening a two-season suspension to one year.

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