Nine Boys Suspended for Fighting

Nine players were suspended from their teams for their involvement in a fight that broke out during a boys' basketball game Friday night between Thomas Stone and Great Mills, athletic officials from both schools said yesterday.

The four Great Mills players ejected from the game were handed one- and two-game suspensions. Another player who was not ejected but was later identified on tape as involved with the fight will not start for the rest of the season. The five ejected Thomas Stone players were given one-game suspensions.

The suspensions start today when Thomas Stone (9-2, 4-1 Southern Maryland Athletic Conference) travels to Leonardtown and Great Mills (9-2, 4-1) hosts La Plata.

The fight started with 59 seconds left in the first quarter. After a Thomas Stone basket, the Hornets' Darien Thornton and the Cougars' Malcolm White began to shove each other near the Great Mills bench.

After a punch was thrown, players from both teams joined in. As some spectators ran toward the edge of the court, coaches from each side and on-site police quickly stepped in to quell the fight. No player was seriously injured and no arrests were made.

Spectators were ordered off Great Mills' school grounds and play resumed after an hour-long delay. Great Mills won, 73-59.

"It's unfortunate," Thomas Stone Athletic Director Steve Lee said. "It was a very emotional, intense game. People lost their cool and shouldn't have done that. Right now, everyone is going to remember the game as a fight instead of a great conference game."

Francis Commits to Terps

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Less than a week after participating in the U.S. Army National Combine in San Antonio, Gonzaga junior lineman A.J. Francis made an oral commitment last Wednesday to play football for Maryland.

The 6-foot-4, 314-pound junior had already generated interest from several ACC schools, including Maryland, but said at the Jan. 5-7 combine that he hoped to attract perennial powers such as Florida State, Ohio State and Notre Dame. And Francis said he was contacted by those schools after the combine, but he was annoyed that they had not been in steady contact with him.

"It was really funny because they hadn't talked to me in months," Francis said. "Now all of a sudden they were trying to start up a conversation."

Francis said he was "tired of playing the recruiting game" and that he chose Maryland because the coaching staff had pursued him from the very beginning.

"I realized that they're really genuine people," Francis said. Maryland Coach Ralph Friedgen "was there the entire time. I'm happy and I'm going to stick with my decision at Maryland."