William Peace basketball player claims racial slurs led to her outburst, suspension

A tweet from the William Peace University women's basketball team said they, "could not in good conscious participate in today's game."

Peace player Lauryn Cross tweeted on Sunday, "William Peace University Athletic Department has suspended me for the second time for defending myself against racial slurs, phallic gestures and being constantly antagonized. With nothing being done to the other athlete. WPU athletics & USA South Conference accept and acknowledge it."

Cross claims on Jan. 30 she was called a racial slur twice by a Mary Baldwin player. That's when things got physical. Cross punched the player.

The punch was captured on video. In a statement, Mary Baldwin University denied that Cross was provoked.

"During the investigation we carried out in conjunction with colleagues at WPU, our administrators carefully reviewed video from the game, interviewed the MBU player involved, and spoke to courtside witnesses, eventually determining that our student athlete -- Demet Saygili -- did not provoke the assault against her and never used a racial slur in airing her frustrations to officials or other players," Mary Baldwin representatives said. They also cited the referees' report from the game, which noted that Demet, as captain, told officials that Cross "was using bad language to intimidate the team."

The statement continued, "No one of the officiating crew heard the alleged slur or any racially charged language."

On March 3, Cross says a Meredith player used a racial slur and gave her team the middle finger. She was suspended, but said nothing happened to the other athletes.

Cross alleged that an unidentified Meredith player had spent most of the game baiting her with racial slurs and other expletives. She said the player flashed an obscene gesture at her through the window of a door separating the teams’ locker rooms. The players crossed paths in the parking lot outside the game site.

“As I was going to my car, she was going to her bus sticking up her middle finger and saying a lot of things ... ” Cross said. “My teammates were holding me back, and I was sitting there crying. I was so frustrated because nobody was doing anything about it whatsoever.

"I don't understand why these two girls are allowed to just do this, and I can't react. I can't respond. I can't do anything," said Cross.

In a statement, the basketball players said, "We feel as though we are not protected by our university and that our voices are not being heard."

William Peace told WRAL News that the university would hire an external reviewer to look at the women's basketball program, Cross's claims and the university handling of them.

Because Peace players decided to forfeit the game rather than play without Cross, Wesleyan automatically became the champion of the USA South conference.

"We will keep fighting until we get justice for our team mate. We will not just shut up and dribble," tweeted Coach Marquetta Dickens.