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Tennessee Volunteers will be without star forward John Fulkerson for the remainder of the SEC tournament after sustaining “facial injuries” in what his teammates called Florida Omar Payne’s “dirty game” in the game. Friday quarter-final match.
Fulkerson was taken to hospital after being hit in the face with both Payne’s elbows with just over 17 minutes left and the Vols leading 35-26, a game that would see him ejected from the game.
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His teammate Yves Pons told reporters after the Flights 78-66 victory that it was “a dirty game”.
“It’s nothing to do on a basketball court,” he said via ESPN. “Of course we took him personally. We love John. We play for him. We support him.”
Fulkerson took to Twitter to offer his forgiveness, adding that Payne contacted him the next morning.
“I know a lot of people are upset with what happened in yesterday’s game,” the tweet read. “Omar contacted me this morning and had a lot of remorse. Everyone makes mistakes. Let’s all be gracious and focus on today’s game. Go Flights!”
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The Florida senior posted his own statement on social media saying he “deeply regrets the incident.”
“I have nothing but respect for John and [the] Tennessee Program “reads his post.” I apologized to John and also wanted to tell him publicly that I’m sorry for him, the Tennessee team and Coach Barnes. I wish them the best of luck in their NCAA tournaments. ”
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The team announced on Saturday morning that Fulkerson had been ruled out for the remainder of the tournament.
The Flights face Alabama on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET in a bid to reach the championship game for a third straight tournament, not including last year with the cancellation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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