Buffalo suspended transfer guard Malik Zachery from its basketball team after police said he stabbed a player from Canisius College in a pickup game.

Zachery was arrested by police in suburban North Tonawanda, N.Y., on Friday and held pending arraignment.

A police news release said officers were called to an address in the city, where St. Matthew Lutheran Church is located, on Wednesday to investigate reports of a stabbing. When police arrived, they found a “single victim with a puncture wound to the leg,” according to the news release. Their investigation found that the victim was a player at Canisius, also in Buffalo.

“At some time during the basketball game there was a physical altercation that occurred between the players,” according to the news release. “During the physical fight, a member of the Canisius College basketball team was stabbed in the leg.”

Zachery was charged with second-degree assault and fourth-degree possession of a weapon.

“The University at Buffalo and its Division of Athletics are aware that North Tonawanda Police is investigating an alleged incident involving a member of our men’s basketball team,” the Buffalo athletic department said in a statement. “We are cooperating fully with its investigation. Until we learn more from police, we won’t have further comment.”

Another Buffalo statement announced his suspension from the team but said that Zachary remains a student.

The teams play in different conferences -- Buffalo in the Mid-American Conference and Canisius in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference -- but have an intracity rivalry.

Zachery played high school basketball at West Genesee, near Syracuse, and returned to his home state this summer as a transfer from Chipola College in Florida, where he averaged 8.5 points, 5.8 assists and 3.9 rebounds as a freshman in the 2018-19 season. He took a redshirt last year, playing in only four games because of injury.

His father, Michael Zachery, told Syracuse.com that his son and his Buffalo teammates were badly outnumbered by Canisius on the court and admitted the two teams subsequently scuffled. He said his son was injured and suffered a torn labrum in the altercation.

Source: Reuters

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