After dropping a win below a championship last season, Golden Eagles took the final step this time and beat Sideline Cancer 78-73 on Tuesday in the final of the Basketball Tournament.
The team takes home $ 1 million in the winning format to take everything. Golden Eagles plan to split the money equally, with the head coach and each player getting $ 90,000, and general manager Daniel Fitzgerald making $ 80,000.
Last summer, Carmen’s Crew finished the title game in an 8-0 run to beat Golden Eagles 66-60. Upon entering the tournament, Golden Eagles, a team made up of former Marquette players, had the second-most wins of all time on TBT but zero championships to prove it.
“It means a lot to us,” said coach Joe Chapman. “It was just one step. We knew what we had to do. We wanted to get that jumpsuit off us and become a winner. It was our last step and something we had to do as a team.”
Tuesday night’s Elam Ending started at 70-70, meaning the first team to reach 78 points would be crowned champion. Golden Eagles scored quickly on an infield play followed by Marcus Keene who continued his shots late in the game and buried a 3 for Sideline Cancer. Jamil Wilson hit another great 3 for Golden Eagles. Then Travis Diener ended the game with a corner 3 to give his team the championship.
“The fun, and the great thing, about Elam Ending is that there is a winning shot in every game,” Diener said. “When you visualize how it will end, I always visualize winning. Making a shot, making a pass, you wait for the opportunity to come. Elgin [Cook] I made a great pass, I found myself completely open and, fortunately, I made the shot. “
Golden Eagles started the game with a 10-2 run, and Keene, the top scorer for Sideline Cancer who entered the game, didn’t score his first points until they stayed at 2:30 in the first half. Golden Eagles forced nine turnovers in the first half, making things difficult for Sideline Cancer by changing defenses. Elgin Cook had 15 points in the first half. Sideline Cancer was able to stay in the game despite Keene’s struggles, with Maurice Creek and Remy Abell reaching double figures in the first half.
Creek gave Sideline Cancer a one-point lead by entering halftime after throwing a pass inside the field for a Golden Eagles player and putting the ball on the buzzer.
“We wanted to make him work for it,” Darius Johnson-Odom said of Keene’s defense. “Pick it up all over the court. Deny it when he gives the ball. Derrick [Wilson] did a great job with it. They all did a great job. He is the head of the serpent. We had to find a way. “
The Basketball Tournament is the first team sporting event in the United States to complete its career and crown a champion since the coronavirus pandemic closed sports in March.
“I think I am very proud of the extent to which everyone bought,” said TBT founder Jonathan Mugar before the game. “We had 400 people reporting, following health and safety protocols. If only one of them hadn’t bought once they got to the site, wearing a mask would have crumbled, and we [not] We have reached the point tonight where we crown a champion. “
Tournament organizers reduced the tournament, generally 64 teams, to 24 teams and organized each game at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. All the players, coaches and staff members were left in a bubble at a downtown hotel, and four replacement teams were brought in with the original 24 in case the positive tests forced the teams to leave. Four teams were forced to leave the field, along with one of the replacement teams. Within the bubble, only three out of 1,200 tests tested positive.
“We really didn’t have high expectations. It had never been done before, neither we nor anyone else,” Mugar said. “We brought four additional teams to quarantine, we lost four teams, along with a quarantine team. That shows where our heads were in the weeks before. We were pretty well prepared for it. We did our best to plan what to go through and prepare. “
Major League Soccer recently started their games in a bubble, and the NBA, WNBA, and NHL are slated to start in bubbles later in the month.
“He is a good model. He is one of the models,” said Mugar. “We have a unique format. It’s simple elimination and in a short period of time. Help. As we prepared for that, we noticed it pretty quickly. These other leagues have a challenge: a longer schedule, a regular-season game.” Our plan was specifically for our event. “
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