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Five-star Kentucky Wildcats commit Kahlil Whitney was involved in a bench-clearing scuffle Saturday night.
It came as Whitney and his Roselle Catholic team took on Montverde Academy. It was a highly-anticipated matchup that featured Whitney going against other big-time recruits in Precious Achiuwa and Balsa Koprivica.
Unfortunately, the game will be remembered for the melee that took place late in the game.
Montverde won the game, 65-41. But with two minutes left, Koprivica was involved in a scuffle with Whitney’s teammate, Josh Pierre-Louis. That led to Whitney coming after Koprivica, and from there, madness ensued
It definitely appears that Balsa Koprivica pushed Josh Pierre-Louis into the @rc_basketball bench and was then greeted by some of Josh’s teammates when punches began to fly pic.twitter.com/xlXxtsYzt5
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) February 10, 2019
Whitney clearly throws some blows at Koprivica as the teams pushed and shoved each other before security and police stepped in to try to break up the melee. It’s unclear if Whitney will be suspended for his team’s next game.
It was actually a heated game throughout, which likely helped lead to tempers boiling over late.
Precious Achiuwa dunks the ball and yells in Kahlil Whitney’s face. Kahlil Whitney then comes down and hits a three ball and tells him to play defense. I love it.
— Samad H. (@Mod_Hines) February 10, 2019
With Kentucky struggling on the recruiting trail, some have wondered if John Calipari would recruit Achiuwa, a top-10 uncommitted recruit who is oddly not getting much interest from big-name programs. I doubt this would help those efforts, if they even come at all.
As for Koprivica, he’s someone Kentucky looked at early in his recruitment. However, once he was linked to the Adidas scandal, Kentucky quickly backed off. He has since signed with the Florida State Seminoles.
It’s not a great look for Whitney, but hopefully, he won’t have to miss many, if any games as his senior season of high school hoops winds down.