CHARLESTON — Marcus Hall made sure Best Virginia’s run through The Basketball Tournament (TBT) ended Wednesday at the Charleston Coliseum.
For a moment, the opposite appeared to be the sure thing, but it passed.
Hall, a former Colorado standout, made sure of that in Team 23’s 75-67 victory.
Team 23, the No. 6 seed in the Charleston Regional, advances to face No. 1 seed Sideline Cancer at 7 p.m. on July 31 in Dayton, Ohio in the round of 8.
“He made some really tough shots,” Best Virginia head coach James Long said. “There are ebbs and flows to every game and he just made some really good shots that got them right back into the game.”
What was once an eight-point lead for Best Virginia with 6:21 remaining in the game turned into Hall scoring on a 3-pointer and then again on a drive to the basket.
By the time the Elam Ending was set with a target score of 74, Team 23 had come from behind to take a 66-65 lead.
“We made some uncharacteristic mistakes that we usually don’t make down the stretch,” said Best Virginia forward Kevin Jones, who scored 14 points in the loss. “I think we let it get to us and I think we let it affect our defense. They hit a lot of great shots and one thing led to another and that was the turnaround that you saw.”
Hall was far from finished. He hit two more 3-pointers and a 15-foot jumper, before Team 23 forward Daniel Ochefu closed out the game on his lay-up while cutting through the lane.
In all, Hall finished with 20 points on 8 of 12 shooting and 13 of his points came in the fourth quarter.
“We were up eight, man,” Best Virginia forward John Flowers said. “I think we sort of rushed to score. We should have slowed it down and tried to get some better shots, but they hit some really tough shots and they are a really good team.”
Best Virginia trailed by seven at halftime, but Jones got hot in the third quarter.
“K.J. was getting hot, so we were feeding him a lot,” Long said. “We came down on six straight possession and threw it to him and he pretty much scored on every one of them.”
Jones’ streak saw him connect on a hook shot, a reverse lay-up, a couple of free throws and a fade-away bank shot.
“My teammates thought I had a good advantage,” Jones said. “They wanted to exploit it and I think it created a spark for everyone. That’s why we were able to go on that little run.”
Nathan Adrian added a 3-pointer and Best Virginia led, 58-53, heading into the fourth quarter.
That lead extended to 64-56 with 6:21 remaining when Jamel Morris went 1 for 2 at the foul line, but that’s when Hall took over the game.
“We had a good group of guys and it was great playing with my brothers,” Flowers said. “We ended up going one game further than we did (in 2019). It didn’t end the way we wanted, but it was great being back in front of the West Virginia fans.”
Walt Lemon added 10 points and five rebounds for Team 23.
Adrian added 12 points and seven rebounds for Best Virginia. His tip-in basket was Best Virginia’s lone score during the Elam Ending.
Flowers added 11 points and four rebounds and Morris scored 10.
(1) Sideline Cancer 58, (12) Bucketneers 57
Marcus Keene’s 3-pointer secured Sideline Cancer’s spot in the round of 8 in TBT.
Trailing, 57-55, against the No. 12 seed in the tournament, Keene came down the floor and nailed the shot to end the game.
He finished with 13 points and five assists and teammate Jamel Artis added 19 on 9 of 12 shooting from the floor.
Desonta Bradford led the Bucketneers with 16 points.
Sideline Cancer was the runner-ups in the 2020 TBT.
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