The Fight That Halted the Bryant–Wagner Final

Bryant led Wagner 68–32 with less than five minutes left in the Northeast Conference men’s basketball championship when a fight behind the Wagner bench stopped the game. At Bryant’s Chace Athletic Center in Smithfield, Rhode Island, on March 8, 2022, the teams left the floor while officials tried to bring the stands under control. ESPN footage showed punches and objects being thrown by Bryant and Wagner fans. Play did not resume for about half an hour.

Smithfield police and Rhode Island State Police officers came onto the court. State police, who sent seven troopers at the local department’s request, said they arrested Connor Gleim, 20, of Raynham, Massachusetts, during the game. He was charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing an officer in execution of duty, arraigned at state police headquarters and released with a future court date, according to police.

Bryant athletic director Bill Smith initially announced that the game would finish without spectators. Wagner fans and band members were removed, along with some Bryant fans. But the stands were not emptied for the finish. Wagner parents and family members were allowed back, and play resumed with police and security forming a buffer between them and Bryant students. Smith told the remaining crowd not to storm the court until Wagner’s players and coaches had left the floor.

Bryant won 70–43, securing its first NEC title and its first NCAA Tournament berth. Accounts of what preceded the fight differed. Providence Journal reporter Bill Koch, writing from the arena, said the crowd had been exchanging taunts and criticized the security and seating arrangements: “But minimal security and adjacent seating set the stage for trouble.”

Smith said afterward that he had not seen how the fight started. He described an emotionally charged game and acknowledged that Bryant’s gym lacked a “natural barrier” for the visiting team. “Unfortunately I don’t think there was anything else we could have done that would have prevented what occurred,” he said.

The following day, Bryant said a small number of students had engaged in unacceptable behavior and that it was investigating through its internal processes. President Ross Gittell’s statement went beyond separating those students from the rest of the crowd: “Treating others with respect and care is who we are, and we did not do that as a community as well as we should have last night.” NEC Commissioner Noreen Morris said the league would investigate and immediately review its game-management policies.

Wagner’s interim president, Angelo Araimo, said the school had decided to remove its band, spirit teams and fans from an “increasingly hostile and unmanageable environment.” He also said no Wagner student had been directly involved in the incident. Congratulating Bryant’s team on its championship, he added: “Neither team deserved the ending they received last night.”