First-half fracas results in 3 ejections in Sky-Sun

An on-court altercation led to three players being ejected Wednesday night in the Connecticut Sun's 71-62 win over the visiting Chicago Sky at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville.

The incident occurred at the 6:35 mark in the second quarter when the Sun's Bria Hartley and the Sky's Rebecca Allen were battling for a rebound. Allen appeared to grab the right arm of Hartley, who responded by shoving Allen to the ground. Allen then grabbed Hartley by her jersey.

As officials stepped in to separate the players, Sky guard Ariel Atkins joined the fray, pushing Hartley while also making contact with a referee.

After a review that delayed the game for about 10 minutes, Hartley and Allen were ejected for fighting and Atkins was ejected "for being an escalator," according to crew chief Angelica Suffren.

Sky coach Tyler Marsh said things had already become physical between Hartley and Allen leading up to the altercation. He said officials "overlooked" an earlier incident between the two, saying that a foul was not called after Hartley struck Allen in the face with an elbow.

"I think things like that have a tendency to happen when there's not a control put on the game prior to," Marsh said. "There's usually an incident that goes overlooked that leads to something like that. [Allen] clearly got elbowed in the face right in front of the ref and it wasn't called. Then other things ensued. It's unfortunate for us. Two players that play high-quality, high-valuable minutes for us."

Chicago had only eight players available in the second half, with Angel Reese (back) sitting out her sixth straight game.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.