TOPEKA — The Elam Ending, the signature feature of The Basketball Tournament in which the game clock halts midway through the fourth quarter and teams proceed to play to a given target score, ensures that every TBT contest ends with some sort of game-winning shot.
It can also have a profound influence on how teams choose to play in key moments. Those were on full display for the Kansas alumni team two summers ago.
In the third round of the 2024 tournament, the former Jayhawks got within three points of their target score against Team Colorado after a trio of free throws by Frank Mason III and proceeded to do little else other than shoot a barrage of 3-pointers, none of which they made. In the meantime, the Buffaloes scored the old-fashioned way — a couple of free throws and a 2-pointer — and stole the win.
On Wednesday night, the KU alumni’s head coach then and now, Sherron Collins, made reference to that experience in the wake of a dramatic 84-80 victory over against Kansas State alumni team Purple Reign at Lee Arena.
“We lost a game previously, something like this, similar to this, a couple years ago, just because we fell in love with the 3,” he recalled.
That was essentially what happened to Purple Reign this time around.
The former Wildcats, who led 75-67 entering the Elam Ending, came up empty on four consecutive possessions because they reached 80 points — three short of the target score — and proceeded to miss four 3s: two from Brandon Childress, one from Xavier Sneed and one from Shaun Williams. As Collins and general manager Tyshawn Taylor remarked, JHX’s defense hadn’t displayed that level of consistency at any point prior.
“That was the first time that we got two or three stops in a row and the game was on the line, so that tells you how much these guys wanted to win the game,” Taylor said.
It also speaks to the former Wildcats’ shot selection. Granted, the KU alumni had some ugly 3s of their own along the way in the late stages of Wednesday night, including an off-balance attempt by Mason. But Mason drove in for a bucket to tie the game at 80 and Billy Preston rattled in a pull-up jumper — not necessarily the most obvious shot selection — to alleviate the need for a 3-pointer altogether by giving JHX Hoops its first lead since 7-6 at 82-80.
When Purple Reign then made a belated attempt to play through the paint, with Austin Trice attempting a contested layup, it was unsuccessful. Mason promptly rebounded his own miss at the other end for an unlikely putback to win the game for the KU alumni and save their TBT run for the moment.
In all, Mason scored the majority of his points, 12 of his 23, after the five-minute mark in the fourth quarter — and he didn’t just do it by firing away from beyond the arc.
“It was just trying to find a balance, you know,” Mason said afterward. “Not settling for 3s. We took a couple early ones and they didn’t fall, so we just started to attack. We got stops on the defensive end, and we got the last one to fall.”
The Sunflower Showdown rivals certainly delivered more drama than they had in Tuesday’s sleepy 80-61 blowout for Purple Reign at Bramlage Coliseum. The result is that JHX Hoops and Purple Reign will have to head back to Manhattan on Friday for a decisive third game, with the winner advancing to the tournament’s second round.
“We can’t be playing from down 14, 10, like we did the first game where we never crack under eight points or six points,” Taylor said.
Former K-State star Michael Beasley had 20 points on Tuesday and a much quieter, albeit numerically similar, 16 on Wednesday. He battled some sort of leg injury late, didn’t play much of a role in the Elam Ending and will undoubtedly have a lot to say about the final outcome on Friday. Purple Reign coach Lance Harris said Beasley was banged up but will be ready to go.
“I hope Beasley’s OK because we want them at full strength,” Collins said.
Tipoff at Bramlage Coliseum has been set at 6 p.m.
