Carmen’s Crew Defeats La Familia 76-70 To Advance To TBT Finals
Carmen’s Crew, Ohio State’s alumni team in the Basketball Tournament, pulled off a thrilling 76-70 upset victory over La Familia, Kentucky’s Alumni team in the semifinals Friday night at Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center in Philadelphia, Pha.
Carmen’s Crew’s win was capped by a logo three-pointer from Jamel Morris, who helped his team hit the target number of 76 on the dot with his long-range jump shot.
Carmen’s Crew used one of its more dominant defensive efforts of the tournament to triumph over the number two seeded Kentucky alumni team.
Carmen’s Crew played a similar style of game to its previous win in the quarterfinals, with an offensive attack centered around big man Jared Sullinger, and aggressive shot selection from beyond the arc.
Like the team’s triumph over Takeover BC, Carmen’s Crew jumped out to a lead that nearly got to 20 points and protected the lead with high-energy defense and timely 3-pointers.
Carmen’s Crew finished the game shooting 14 of 33 from beyond the arc for an efficient 42 percent clip, and 45 percent from the field as a whole.
Despite Jared Sullinger and Desonta Bradford having productive days to lead the team in scoring with 16 and 15 points respectively, it was a balanced offensive attack that sealed the win.
Carmen’s Crew finished the game with five scorers with at least nine points in the game including Kaleb Wesson, Erick Neal and Morris to go along with Sullinger and Bradford.
Carmen’s Crew’s suffocating defensive attack started from the tip, when the team allowed just 10 first quarter points to take a slight lead.
The second quarter though, is when Carmen’s Crew played its highest level of complementary basketball. To go along with its stifling defensive pressure, Carmen’s Crew got red hot from three in the second quarter. Wesson got the scoring streak started by scoring the team’s first five points of the quarter. Carmen’s Crew would build the substantial lead it carried for the rest of the game with a 9-1 scoring run.
Scott Thomas and Bradshaw combined for three straight makes from beyond the arc which stretched the lead to 39-24 for Carmen’s Crew. Carmen’s Crew carried a 40-27 lead into halftime and only increased the lead early on in the third quarter.
Sullinger is probably not the player Buckeye fans would expect to stretch the defense with his long-distance shooting, but he found himself making an open three-point jumper in the third quarter to give Carmen’s Crew it’s largest lead of the game.
Down 16, La Familia didn’t give in, and continued to scratch and claw back into the game behind the offensive abilities of former NBA players, Eric Bledsoe, WIllie Cauley-Stein and Andrew Harrison. The former Wildcats cut Carmen Crew’s lead to seven before Keyshawn Woods, Morris and Andree Wesson answered La Familia’s scoring run with three made three-point jumpers.
Still, going into the fourth quarter, Carmen’s Crew by no means had the game in the bag, up by nine points.
Carmen’s Crew became slightly cold in the fourth quarter and Cauley-Stein’s interior presence allowed La Familia to cut the lead to four, as the teams entered the period known as the Elam ending. The Elam Ending marks the end of the game when one of the teams scores eight more points than the amount of points the winning team has going into the period.
With Carmen’s Crew up 68-64 heading into the period, the first team to reach 76 points would win the game.
Early in the period, Bledsoe put serious pressure on Carmen’s Crew with a two-pointer, but Sullinger maintained his team’s lead with an answer on the other end. Andrew Harrison made another two-point shot to cut the lead to two, but needing just two three-pointers to win the game, Bradshaw made the first clutch jump shot from downtown to get Carmen’s Crew halfway there.
On the very offensive possession, Morris made things official with a very deep three-pointer that sent Carmen’s Crew to the Championship game.
The team will look for its first championship in the tournament since 2019, on Sunday at 2 p.m. when they take on the No. 2 seeded Forever Cougs, Houston’s alumni team at the at the Daskalakis Athletic Center.