Skip to main content
Join Now
Get a profile. Be recruited.

Mississippi State forward Brandon Walker hits Amari Allen in neck, ejected for Flagrant 2 foul vs. Alabama

ns_headshot_2024-clearby: Nick Schultz01/14/26NickSchultz_7

Mississippi State forward Brandon Walker was ejected Tuesday night against Alabama after a Flagrant 2 foul. He went to block a shot by Amari Allen and the officials deemed the contact to the neck excessive and severe, resulting in his ejection.

Allen drove into the lane and attempted the left-handed layup when Walker when to block the shot. However, he didn’t hit the ball, and Allen took exception to the play immediately afterward. The officials quickly diffused the situation.

Walker appeared to hit Allen in the shoulder and neck area, and the officials went straight to the monitor to review the play. Ultimately, they deemed it a Flagrant 2 foul, resulting in Walker’s ejection.

Walker played just one minute off the bench in Tuesday’s game prior to his departure. Alabama was in the midst of a strong second half after taking a 36-34 lead into halftime.

Brandon Walker appeared in 15 games this year heading into Tuesday night’s SEC matchup against Alabama. In that time, he was averaging 4.7 points and 2.5 rebounds. He arrived in Starkville this year after transferring from Montana State, where he put up strong numbers a season ago. With the Bobcats, Walker averaged 14.7 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.

Mississippi State went into Tuesday looking to bounce back from its first SEC loss, 92-68, to Kentucky last time out. Prior to that game, MSU had rattled off six straight victories between the end of non-conference play and the beginning of SEC action.

In that loss to Kentucky, Mississippi State got outscored 48-29 in the second half and committed 15 turnovers. The Wildcats turned those into 27 points and also capitalized on fast breaks, which is why Chris Jans pointed to those areas as the difference as State fell to 10-6 overall and 2-1 in conference play.

“Turnovers, they had 27 point off our turnovers,” Jans said in the postgame press conference. “And second-chance points were 22-9 and then 22-6 in fast-break points. Those were the main keys going into the game and if we were going to win, we couldn’t give them a bunch of run-outs. I was hoping we could hang out hat on rebounding. All of those factors led to us being on the wrong end of the score.”