Hamline basketball player charged with assault

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Hamline University basketball player is accused of punching a woman while the team was in Spokane, Wash.

Eighteen-year-old Eugene Lawrence III appeared in Spokane County Superior Court Wednesday on a second-degree assault charge.

Steve Bray, of Portland, Ore., says his 20-year-old daughter, Kayla, was visiting another Hamline player she knew from high school at the team’s hotel on New Year’s Eve. Bray says his daughter got in an argument with Lawrence at the hotel. He’s accused of punching her in the face and knocking her to the floor.

KSTP-TV reports Kayla Bray was released from the hospital Wednesday evening following surgery for a broken jaw.

The St. Paul university says Lawrence has been place on interim suspension from the basketball team and the school. Documents on file at the Superior Court clerk’s office do not list a defense attorney.