When the University of North Carolina scored a last-second three-point shot to beat Duke on Saturday, the crowd went wild. Twice. Fans stormed the court as Seth Trimble’s shot went in with 0.4 seconds left on the clock, but they had to be pushed back to their seats for that final half-second of Duke’s possession. When the clock truly hit zero, they stormed the court a second time.
According to ESPN, in the middle of all that court storming, members of the Duke staff were “punched in the face.”
Said Duke head coach Jon Scheyer, “I got staff members that got punched in the face. My family, pushing people away, trying to not get trampled. That's not what this game is about."
UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham publicly apologized to the Blue Devils for the incident, saying, “Obviously, if somebody got injured, that's just really, really disappointing. We'll do the best we can to make sure that doesn't happen, but again, my apologies to Duke for that.”
According to ABC 11 News, as its first court-storming offense of the season, the ACC will fine the Tarheels $50,000 for the incident.
"We accept the ACC's fine for having unauthorized people on the court before Duke and the officials could completely clear the floor on Saturday,” said the UNC athletics department in a statement.
Despite the chaotic scene, Scheyer did not condemn the Tarheels for their court-storming. “They won, they should celebrate," he said. "They want to court-storm, court-storm. But just let's get our guys off safely, that's it. That's where I'm at with that.”
