NATIONAL Basketball League superstar James Ennis has been charged with attempting to strike Horsham’s Mitch Creek in a post-game altercation on Friday.
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Ennis, of the Perth Wildcats, was at the centre of a physical altercation between Perth and Adelaide players and coaches after their match in Perth.
Members of both teams tussled on court before being separated, following the Wildcats’ dominant 85-61 win over the 36ers.
The NBL charged Ennis with attempting to strike Creek and Adelaide coach Joey Wright with striking Perth assistant coach Adam Tatalovich on Monday afternoon.
Both clubs were also charged with code of conduct breaches by the league and will be sanctioned, while Ennis and Wright will front an independent judiciary.
Creek said he was limited in what he could say about the incident due to the continuing investigation by the league, which he had already given a statement for.
“Words were exchanged and we just stepped in for our team-mates and they stepped in for theirs and it got a bit heated and there was a bit of pushing and shoving,” he said.
“We weren’t happy coming off a loss like that and we’re a pretty proud team and so are they.”
Creek’s 36ers are second on the ladder and had hoped to challenge the top-ranked Wildcats.
They rebounded with a strong win against Melbourne on Sunday, but Creek said the entire team was disappointed with the result and would make adjustments in the lead-up to finals.
“We went into that game thinking we had a good chance to fight it out and for us to end up getting beaten by 20 points is not the way the 36ers play basketball,” he said.
“We were selfish at times, we passed the ball badly and our pressure was non-existent.
“If we’d played the way we did on Sunday, it probably would have been a different result, whether it was a closer margin or we won.”