Tempers flare in TBT matchup between rivals Kentucky and Louisville

No one is surprised a battle between Kentucky and Louisville ended in drama. The longtime rivals squared off on the basketball court during The Basketball Tournament when La Familia, a team of former Kentucky players, took on The Ville, a team featuring Louisville alumni.

The result was not only the largest crowd in TBT history, with the 13,506 in attendance at Freedom Hall nearly doubling the previous record of 7,202, it also featured a near-brawl post game thanks to a spitting incident between La Familia’s Nate Sestina and The Ville’s Chinanu Onuaku.

“Emotions ran high,” said Sestina, who confirmed to ESPN that Onuaku spat at him. “That’s what this game does to people. It had been great chatter the whole game, nothing crazy, nothing personal. And then it got personal, obviously. That’s what this game is.”

The rivalry between these two programs in Kentucky dates back well before anyone playing on Monday was even alive, and the fact that two teams of alumni can still get into it like this proves how deep-seeded this rivalry goes.

The two teams scattered quite a few former college and NBA stars across the rosters, including Montrezl Harrell, Peyton Siva, and Russ Smith for The Ville and Willie Cauley-Stein and Eric Bledsoe for La Familia.

The game itself was won by La Familia, 70-61, thanks to a game winning three pointer from Andrew Harrison, who was a part of back-to-back Final Four teams at Kentucky in 2014 and 2015.

The Kentucky squad advances to the quarterfinals of TBT, hoping to secure a championship and the $1M prize. They’ll take on the winner of Forever Coogs (Houston alumni) and Team Colorado ( Colorado alumni) who square off at 9:00 PM ET on Tuesday, July 30. The game will be broadcast on FS1.