'Yo! He just bit him!' College basketball player DeJon Jarreau admits BITING opponent's leg in violent moment of madness (VIDEO)

Basketball player DeJon Jarreau has been forced to apologize after his coach admitted the guard had bitten an opponent on the leg in a bizarre incident towards the end of a fiercely-contested NCAA game in Cincinnati on Saturday.

Houston Cougars' Jarreau can be seen falling to the floor before chomping at Cincinnati Bearcats forward Mamoudou Diarra’s knee area with just over six minutes of play remaining as his side lost by the skin of their teeth at the sold-out Fifth Third Arena.

The violent incident in the scrum was reviewed for several minutes by officials, who awarded what is thought to be the competition’s first ever technical foul for biting and ejected Jarreau from the game, which his team subsequently lost 64-62.

Disbelieving senior forward Trevon Scott was in no doubt about the freak altercation he had witnessed. "I’m like, 'Yo! He just bit him!'’,  the Bearcats lynchpin said. You could see, like, a bite, like spit kind of.

I’ve never seen that. Like sweaty, another man biting another man’s leg.”

Center Chris Vogt revealed the bizarre retaliation had left a white mark on teammate Diarra’s leg. They were kind of scrambling for the ball and the play was dead," he added. "He bit him around his knee or thigh."

Cougars boss Kelvin Sampson vigorously denied any bite had taken place in his post-match response, initially insisting: "There was no bite. There’s just...there was no bite.

"I watched it. When they called the technical, that was big. And then they threw him out of the game.

"It’s difficult to win in any atmosphere. It’s hard to win on the road, period."

The hugely experienced coach was contrite after watching the footage "from multiple angles", confirming in a statement: "It can clearly be seen that DeJon Jarreau bit Mamoudou Diarra.

"Our program is built on discipline, and behavior like that will not be tolerated. I am confident DeJon will learn from this incident and the consequences of his actions."

Jarreau later issued his own statement of apology to Diarra, Sampson and Bearcats coach John Brannen, who said he had not discussed the foul with his player.

"In Saturday’s game at Cincinnati, I made a poor decision," confessed Jarreau, who has been suspended by Sampson from Houston's game against Tulane on Thursday and promised to "do everything I can to learn from this and grow into a better leader and player."

The American Athletic Conference is now investigating the bite with a view to taking further action.

Bearcats had been 15 points behind at one stage in the game, producing an impressive comeback and capitalizing on their one-man advantage in the closing stages as they sealed a fourth straight victory.