Shakim Alonzo is a 6-foot-5 wide receiver who will play for the University of Cincinnati next season. Less than a month ago, he was also honored as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s High School Athlete of the Week. This week, though, he is at the center of a controversy following his ejection from a high school basketball playoff game.

Alonzo, a player for Woodland Hills High School, was ejected from the game after throwing a punch (it missed). While walking to the bench, with both his coach and mother trying to intervene, he reversed and went after the Peters Township bench, where he threw a punch that connect with the head of Gabe Pritz (who was not the intended target). Pritz ended up getting 11 stitches.

Shakim Alonzo now claims that the incident was the result of racial slurs directed at him. He claims he was trying to tell the refs about it, and they did not do anything, then he lost it. Alonzo alleges that a player threw an elbow into his stomach while uttering a racial slur, which led to his first attempted punch.

The Peters Township coach says Alonzo “can claim whatever he wants. It’s not a racial incident.” Alonzo is now at the center of a significant altercation, with a scholarship to a Division I program looming. It will likely devolve into a “he said, he said” contest.

This is the second racially-charged incident at a Pittsburgh area high school basketball game in the last two weeks, following the Monessen-Brentwood incident involving fans wearing banana costumes. The WPIAL (Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League) is holding a hearing on that issue this week.

Now, they will be addressing another one.

[photo via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]