Golden Eagles vs. Sideline Cancer Set for the Basketball Tournament 2020 Finals
July 13, 2020
The Golden Eagles and Sideline Cancer are one victory away from $1 million.
The Golden Eagles defeated the Red Scare, and the Sideline Cancer advanced in stunning fashion past the Overseas Elite in Sunday's semifinal games in The Basketball Tournament. The winners will face each other Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio, in the championship game of the winner-take-all, single-elimination tournament that featured 24 teams.
Sunday's victors, like every other winner throughout the tournament, advanced with the Elam ending, which shuts off the clock at the first dead ball with less than four minutes remaining in the game and adds eight points to the leading team's score.
The two teams then play until one of them reaches that total.
There wasn't much Elam drama in the first one with Jamil Wilson drilling a three to give the Golden Eagles a straightforward nine-point win. That was hardly the case in the second one, as Sideline Cancer battled back from a double-deficit hole before Maurice Creek hit a winning three-pointer to complete the comeback.
Here is a look at the full results from Sunday's action.
Scores
Golden Eagles def. Red Scare, 79-70
Sideline Cancer def. Overseas Elite, 67-65
Golden Eagles Advance Over Red Scare
The Golden Eagles are right where they were last year: the championship game.
They surely want to come away with a win this time around.
After losing in last year's final to a Carmen's Crew squad featuring a number of former Ohio State players, the team spearheaded by former Marquette players handled a Red Scare group with plenty of former University of Dayton players.
Wilson led the way even before he connected on the game-winning three-pointer and finished with a team-high 23 points and seven rebounds. He had some help from Darius Johnson-Odom (13 points and two boards) and Elgin Cook (10 points and three rebounds), which was enough to overcome a strong effort from Trey Landers on the other side.
Landers finished with 21 points and six rebounds, but the Red Scare tallied 12 turnovers and were unable to contain the Golden Eagles' perimeter shooting.
It was fitting Wilson ended the game with a three because his team shot 11-of-28 (39.3 percent) from downtown throughout the contest.
Cinderella Is Still Dancing
It would have been fair for the Golden Eagles to assume they would face Overseas Elite in the championship.
After all, Overseas Elite is The Basketball Tournament's biggest powerhouse as a four-time champion that lost a mere one game in the event's history heading into Sunday's action. The roster may be different this time around, but seven-time NBA All-Star Joe Johnson has provided much of the offense.
Johnson entered Sunday's contest averaging 24.0 points per game and added 18 points in the semifinal, but Sideline Cancer missed the memo that they were supposed to be the ones going home.
TBT's Cinderella story was the only one to advance to the semifinals without a bye thanks largely to impressive efforts from Marcus Keene, Creek, Remy Abell and Eric Thompson.
It was Keene who caught fire in the third quarter on his way to 22 points to help put his team into position to make a late run after falling behind by double digits, and Sideline Cancer came all the way back to tie the game heading into the Elam ending.
From there, it was a drama-filled race to score eight points first.
Keene drilled a three-pointer to go up two and bring his side within three points of victory, but Johnson answered with an and-1 to pull his team within two points of the win. They each missed shots that would have won it for their respective sides, but Creek played the role of hero when he sent his team into the final.
That means a team that has never won this tournament in the past will be champions in 2020.