After their long overnight drive to Lexington, Kentucky, the Kansas alumni’s best-ever run through The Basketball Tournament reached the end of the road at Historic Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday night.
JHX Hoops, which according to the FS1 broadcast made it to town at 6 a.m. with a shootaround several hours later, fell 78-65 to Kentucky alumni team La Familia in the alumni bracket championship.
The KU alumni’s hot shooting guards had steered them through a first-round best-of-three series with Purple Reign and Monday’s game against the AfterShocks, but La Familia locked down JHX’s offense to the point that it went 1-for-15 in the third quarter. The former Jayhawks finished with 21-for-70 shooting (30.0%) and 5-for-29 (17.2%) from deep, with Billy Preston (15 points, nine rebounds) as the leading scorer.
Archie Goodwin, TBT’s top overall scorer since his arrival three games in, scored 28 as the Kentucky alumni advanced to Sunday’s $2 million TBT championship game.
Willie Cauley-Stein scored twice early for the Kentucky alumni, but a 3-pointer by Jacob Hanna, his first of the tournament, helped JHX Hoops grab an early advantage. With the former Jayhawks holding an 8-7 lead, both teams missed a long series of attempts from beyond the arc entering the opening media timeout.
La Familia went ahead 12-10 late in the first quarter when Cauley-Stein threw down a lob, then took back possession when Carlton Bragg Jr. got called for an illegal screen and added a step-back 3 from Goodwin in the waning seconds.
The KU alumni did not score for almost four minutes across the quarter break, and by the time Zeke Mayo got on the board with two free throws they had fallen behind by eight points. Then, Cauley-Stein’s offensive rebound on a missed free throw by Goodwin resulted in a three-point play for James Mainor-Bell that extended the former Wildcats’ lead to 22-12.
JHX Hoops struck back with a late-clock off-balance 3-pointer by Frank Mason III and a transition layup from Mayo, but then Darryl Morsell converted another three-point play in response.
The KU alumni had to call timeout after a turnover by Mason led to a dunk by Goodwin that made it 30-19.
JHX used one of its best possessions of the half to get Preston an open 3-pointer that cut the margin to seven points, and then a turnover by DeAndre Liggins led to a putback for Bragg off Mario Chalmers’ missed corner 3.
The halftime score was 37-30 following a pair of free throws by Andrew Harrison and a variety of scattered misses in the final minute.
The KU alumni entered the break within striking distance despite combined 3-for-14 shooting from Mason and Mayo, thanks in large part to some of Preston’s best play of TBT. However, JHX turned 11 offensive rebounds into just six second-chance points. Goodwin led all players with 10 points.
Neither team accomplished much in the early stages of the fourth quarter as the KU alumni were ice-cold from the field. JHX missed its first nine shots of the second half before head coach Sherron Collins finally called timeout with La Familia ahead 44-31 after a pair of free throws by Chris Coffey.
La Familia continued to build its lead at the line thanks to a ceaseless barrage of JHX fouls. Coffey stretched the lead to 52-35 with a fierce putback dunk late in the quarter before Mason made a layup to end the former Jayhawks’ drought at last.
JHX continued to spiral, with Coffey grabbing an errant deflection from Jamari Traylor and putting the ball up immediately through a foul. He scored and added a free throw, and after an errant jump shot by Traylor, the third quarter concluded with the score at 58-37.
Andrew Orr and Traylor helped JHX make matters somewhat more respectable for a moment, but Goodwin and Morsell fought back in short order. Mayo connected on a pair of late 3s after he had started 0-for-5 from deep, and La Familia entered the Elam Ending with a 69-53 lead and a target score of 77.
Goodwin banked in a 3-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer on the first possession after Mason thought he had stepped out of bounds, a play that summed up the second half for JHX Hoops. The KU alumni remained off the mark from beyond the arc and so didn’t make up enough ground even as La Familia’s offense slowed to a crawl. Goodwin at one point missed two free throws at the line with the Kentucky alumni one point away.
Preston tipped in an offensive rebound and Mayo drove in for another layup to make it 76-65 before Goodwin finally knocked down a turnaround jumper on the baseline.
JHX finishes TBT with a 3-2 record, making its all-time mark 9-5.
