College Basketball Player-Turned-Ref Sucker Punches High School Coach Into Next Week

For the second time this week, we had haymakers FLY at a high school sporting event out in Gavin Newsom's California.

As much as I'd like to blame the Gov. for this, I'm not even sure it's his fault. As I say time and time again, high school sporting events are the Wild Wild West. Anything and everything can -- and will -- happen.

This particular melee took place last weekend at a high school basketball game, when a ref blew the whistle, the coach didn't like it, and ...

Well, you'll see:

Brandon Knapper pads the resume with a huge punch and a couple felonies at high school basketball game

BOOOOOOOOOOOM! What did he say? Whatever it was, it got this cat knocked into the eastern time zone. What a right-hook.

Absolute chaos here, but, again, par for the course. Earlier this week we had the story about a 16-year-old taking a punch to the nose from an adult and his coach throwing out "assault" allegations, and now we have this.

From TMZ, which -- stunningly -- obtained the video before anyone else.

At some point in the second half, witnesses claim Oak Hills head coach Rob Alexander got upset with referee Brandon Knapper over his officiating ... and an argument ensued.

In a clip we obtained of the game, 26-year-old Knapper -- a former college basketball player at West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky and Cal State San Bernardino -- can be seen approaching Alexander near Oak Hills' bench and briefly talking to him ... before unleashing his fist on the coach's face.

Law enforcement tells us Alexander requested prosecution against Knapper, who turned himself in and was charged with battery causing serious bodily injury and assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury -- both felonies.

Let's check in on old Brandon Knapper while we're here ...

According to Google, Brandon played in 59 games over two seasons in West Virginia and averaged a couple buckets per contest.

He really flourished as a college basketball player the past two years at Cal State San Bernardino, where he led the conference in scoring in 2022 and was a first-team all-conference player last year.

Not a bad little resume to have in your back pocket, although adding a couple potential felonies to the list may weaken it a tad.