MORGANTOWN — Best Virginia was hit with two untimely nightmares Friday night in the quarterfinals of The Basketball Tournament (TBT).
Scoochie Smith was one. The Elam Ending was the other.
Smith finished with 17 points and eight assists and Jordan Sibert added 12 points to lead the Red Scare past Best Virginia, 67-60, at the University of Dayton Arena.
Best Virginia, the WVU alumni team, made its deepest run at TBT in its third season of competition, but ultimately fell short and fell to 6-3 all-time in TBT play.
It was truly a game of runs. After falling behind 19-10 late in the first quarter, Best Virginia came back in the second quarter to take a 22-21 lead, before trailing 27-25 at halftime.
The third quarter was an example of the Red Scare — the champion of the Dayton Regional as its No. 3 seed — taking advantage of extra possessions.
Seven offensive rebounds by the hometown Dayton alumni team turned into 11 second-chance points in the quarter, and when Ryan Mikesell nailed a 3-pointer with three minutes left, Red Scare led 49-41.
That’s when Best Virginia — the champion of the West Virginia Regional in Charleston as its No. 1 seed — threw another counterpunch.
Devin Ebanks scored an and-one 3-point play in the paint and D’Angelo Hunter added another lay-up. Jermaine Haley hit a three from the corner to tie the game at 49 heading into the final quarter.
That’s when Smith simply took over the game.
The former all-Atlantic 10 player at Dayton scored Red Scare’s first 10 points, which included two 3-pointers and a driving lay-up.
His two free throws with with 3:33 remaining gave the Red Scare a 59-57 advantage and set the target score at 67.
The Elam Ending was not kind to Best Virginia.
It’s first two possessions were turnovers and its next three possessions were all missed 3-pointers.
By the time Jaysean Paige finally nailed a three, Red Scare had already taken a 66-60 lead and simply needed one more point to win it.
That came on the very next possession, as Mikesell faked a 3-point attempt from the corner and drove the baseline. He was fouled by Juwan Staten and nailed the ensuing free throw to win the game.
John Flowers led Best Virginia with 12 points and five rebounds, but it was a lack of rebounds that hurt the team.
Red Scare finished with a 40-35 advantage on the boards, but it was 16-6 in offensive rebounds and Red Scare finished with 22 second-chance points.
Red Scare now advances to play Blue Collar, an alumni team from the University at Buffalo, at 4 p.m. Saturday in the TBT semifinals.
The winner advances to the TBT championship game on Aug. 2 for the right to play for the $1 million prize.
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