Manhattan expects to have starting forwards Peter Mulligan and C.J. Anderson back for tomorrow’s home game with Fairfield after the two were suspended for Thursday night’s 75-46 loss at Rider.
Coach Bobby Gonzalez and the college’s athletic department punished Mulligan, a senior co-captain, and Anderson, a freshman, for their role in an altercation Tuesday night at Fenwick’s Bar and Grill in Riverdale.
According to two people who were at the scene Tuesday and two other sources, several basketball players joined a crowd of students at the bar. At least two of them were involved in a fight both inside and outside the bar some time 11 p.m. Tuesday and 2 a.m. Wednesday.
Police responded once, according to one source, but there were no arrests and no documentation filed with the department.
Later Wednesday, athletic department representatives met with Fenwick’s owners to discuss the incident, another source said. Soon after, the school suspended Anderson, 19, and Mulligan, a 22-year-old Bronx native.
Manhattan sports information director Michael Antonaccio would neither confirm nor deny the players’ roles in the incident. In a pregame interview on the Jaspers’ Internet broadcasts Thursday night, Gonzalez said the suspensions disappointed him.
“We have to do what’s right,” the coach said. “We have to have order. We haven’t had a lot of this since I’ve been here . . . but the kids were back from break, and things happen.
“A guy like C.J., he’s going to learn from this. And Peter, he’s a senior captain. I expected more from him.”
Mulligan leads the team with 20.6 points per game, and Anderson, a six-time MAAC Rookie of the Week, scores 15.7 and grabs a team-high 8.8 rebounds.
Without them, the Jaspers took their second-worst loss in Gonzalez’s six years at the school and their most lopsided MAAC loss in since the 1990-91 season.
Junior co-captain Mike Konovelchick and sophomore Darren Johnson replaced the suspended pair in the starting lineup and combined for seven points.