Best Virginia’s The Basketball Tournament Run Comes to an End Against Team 23

Best Virginia’s The Basketball Tournament run has come to an end, dropping a Sweet Sixteen contest to Team 23, 75-67.

With the victory, the final win in the West Virginia region of TBT, Team 23 will advance to Dayton, Ohio for an Elite Eight matchup against No. 1 seed Sideline Cancer. Unfortunately for the largely pro-WVU crowd at the Charleston Coliseum, they weren’t able to see BV win the region.

Next year. @thetournament pic.twitter.com/gjeXLZKtRy

— Best Virginia TBT & Final Fourcast Podcast (@finalfourcast) July 22, 2021

A 3-pointer from Team 23’s Marcus Hall set the Elam Ending target at 74, his shot from beyond the arc coming just under the four minute mark. Hall’s 3-pointer gave Team 23 their first lead since the 5:15 mark of the third quarter.

Scoring slowed down once the Elam Ending took effect, with BV shooting 1-for-5 down the stretch and committing two turnovers. A clutch bucket from 23’s Eric Washington narrowed his team’s target to just one point, and his teammate Daniel Ochefu scored the game-winning bucket after a missed BV 3-point attempt.

With a 44-37 halftime deficit for BV, the Mountaineers exploded for 21 points in the third quarter. Team 23 managed to claw back in the fourth quarter, after losing the way midway through the third and overwhelmed BV in the Elam Ending.

BV and Team 23 played a fairly even contest, but with a 42% shooting night from the field (23-of-54), BV was unabe to overcome Team 23’s 61% shooting night (30-of-49) — with Team 23 dominating in the paint, 38 points to BV’s 18.

Once again, Kevin Jones led the way for BV, scoring 14 points on 5-of-12 shooting. John Flowers, Nathan Adrian and Jamel Morris rounded out the double-digit scorers for the Mountaineers. Flowers scored 11 points on 3-of-5 from beyond the arc, Adrian scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds and Morris scored 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting.

Hall led the way for Team 23, scoring 20 points, including the Elam Ending forcing 3-pointer, on 8-of-12 shooting. Teammate Walt Lemon scored 10 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished two assists.

Best Virginia’s TBT run ended earlier than hoped for, but they’ll be back next year in the chase for the $1 million prize.