The 2024 Jamestown Jackals men’s professional basketball team pose for a picture Sunday prior to playing at round one of The Basketball League’s playoffs after a practice workout. The Jackals were eliminated from the TBL championship playoffs by a referee-called forfeit, which team ownership and leaders allegedly never agreed to or wanted at Tuesday night’s first round game. Submitted photo

The Jamestown Jackals have been eliminated from The Basketball League’s (TBL) championship playoffs after just one quarter of the team’s first playoff game.

The Jackals team owner and management allege that during the team’s first round playoff game Tuesday against the Raleigh Firebirds at St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh, N.C., unruly behavior by fans prompted an incident that escalated into the ejection of a player and the eventual forfeiture of the game.

In a written email to David Magley, The Basketball League president, Kayla Crosby, Jackals owner, alleged her team was forced to play in a hostile environment that bordered on dangerous. She also alleges game officials were biased, unprofessional and unapproachable. Crosby and the team’s head coach never agreed to forfeit the game, she also said in the letter.

Attempts to get comment from The Basketball League officials Wednesday and Thursday were unsuccessful by Friday’s print deadline.

The incident started with a Jackals player, Alonzo Murphy, who had been pushed by a Raleigh player. Teammates stepped in to defuse the situation. Crosby then reported that a fan was yelling obscenities and making a pistol shooting gesture with his hands towards Murphy. Then according to her report, Murphy yelled back

“Nah this isn’t going to happen. Just wait, I’m going to get my bag,” Murphy said, according to Crosby’s letter.

The same ref who denied seeing Murphy get pushed immediately called a team huddle of the referees. A university security/police officer then approached Crosby and Singleton and told them Murphy had been ejected by the referees.

Crosby said she continued to express her displeasure at the situation as well as her concern for the safety of her team and players after Murphy’s ejection. Officials refused to allow game play to continue until Murphy physically left the venue. Crosby alleges that the Raleigh team owner didn’t help the situation with his actions, which further upset Crosby and her staff.

At some point during the game, five Raleigh police officers and one campus police lieutenant responded to the university’s gym to remove Murphy and to keep the peace, according to Crosby.

“My understanding is one of the referees called 9-1-1 on our player and was refusing to restart the game until he was removed from the building,” she said.

Trying to keep the game alive and find a compromise to protect her players, Crosby then called the The Basketball League’s executive leadership team to allow the game to continue, Crosby said.

“I called TBL’s Commissioner Carlnel Wiley Jr.,” she said. “We agreed to keep Murphy in the locker room, with a campus police officer standing guard and agreeing to escort the referees to their cars after the game.”

However, a few minutes later, according to Crosby, she received a phone call saying the referees had already left and called the game a forfeit by the Jackals.

“(Neither) I, nor Coach Singleton, agreed to forfeit the game. We tried and tried to make it work,” said Crosby.