Peoria, Illinois – Chris McCullough caught the pass in the left corner, directly in front of the Boeheim’s Army bench.
Behind him, his teammates were begging him to shoot the ball. Boeheim’s Army needed a single point to eliminate Team Heartfire and advance in its quest for $1 million winner-take-all The Basketball Tournament money. The Elam Ending dictated those terms.
McCullough passed on an open corner 3-pointer, took a dribble and drained a mid-range jump shot.
Just like that, the tension lifted from the Boeheim’s Army sideline. Just like that, the Syracuse-based team eclipsed the Target Score of 67 and could finally exhale. The Army advanced with a 68-62 win. It will now play hometown Always a Brave (Bradley alums) Wednesday at 9 p.m.
“It was an open shot,” McCullough explained later. “Big man closed out. Took one dribble and shot the ball. It felt good to hit the game-winner.”
That game-winner came during an Elam Ending that defines TBT.
Players either love or hate the sudden switch from a clock-based strategy to a score-based one. For the uninitiated, here’s how it works:
When the game reaches the 4-minute or below mark of the fourth quarter, the clock stops at the first dead ball or time out. Eight points are then added to the score of whichever team owns the lead. The first team to reach that number – in Boeheim’s Army’s Monday victory it was 67 – wins the game.
Boeheim’s Army #7 Chris McCullough puts the team name on the bracket after the second round game of The Basketball Tournament, Peoria Regional, Peoria Ill. July 26, 2021 Photo by Daryl WilsonDaryl Wilson
“I really don’t like it, to be honest,” McCullough said. “But it is what it is. You gotta play it.”
“I think it’s a good thing,” Deandre Kane interrupted. “It forces teams to play basketball. You can’t just go out there and foul. Or they gonna get free throws. You gotta shoot. And you gotta play defense.”
McCullough is playing in his first TBT. Kane is an Overseas Elite veteran, a guy whose teams thrived under Elam Ending pressure. Every time Overseas Elite dictated terms of the Elam Ending, Kane said, it “took care of business.” The team won four straight TBT titles.
Love it or hate it, Elam creates its own mystifying mayhem. In both Boeheim’s Army wins, the games were tight when the Elam Ending kicked in. In both those games, the opposing team suddenly forgot how to play.
There were bad, forced shots over tough Army defenders. There was a bevy of turnovers.
Meanwhile, Boeheim’s Army methodically kept playing.
The Syracuse-based team gave up a 3-pointer to start Monday’s Elam Ending but did not allow another Heartfire field goal the rest of the way. Meanwhile, Tyrese Rice drained a 3-pointer. DJ Kennedy tipped in a Rice miss. McCullough scored in transition and then sank the jump shot that ended the tournament for Heartfire.
In Saturday’s win, Boeheim’s Army outscored Forces of Seoul 10-1 during the Elam Ending.
“The Elam Ending is when guys get super-tight,” Kane said. “And you just gotta relax and keep playing basketball like the Elam Ending never happened. You don’t really focus on what the score is, because when you focus on the score you start to think, ‘I gotta hit a 3 here.’ And guys start rushing and not playing the basketball they played to get them to that point.”
“You can’t get freaked out,” Eric Devendorf said. “That’s when you start playing tense. Look at the guys we have. Tyrese Rice, 34 years old. Deandre Kane and DJ Kennedy, four-time TBT champions. The guys that we have, it’s nothing new to them. I think guys are poised and they know what they’re doing. You gotta get stops and you gotta execute on offense.”
Boeheim’s Army #2 Deandre Kane tries to get past Heartfire #23 Tevin Mack during the second round game of The Basketball Tournament, Peoria Regional, Peoria Ill. July 26, 2021 Photo by Daryl WilsonDaryl Wilson
Kane, in particular, possesses superhuman energy and endless reserves of grit. He plays hard every minute he’s on the floor. His strategy over the years during Elam Endings, he said, was to run to the corner on offense and either rebound a miss or sprint back to play defense.
That Kane and Kennedy are on the floor at the end of these games is no accident.
“We know what it takes,” Kane said. “We got experienced guys. We got guys who played high professional basketball around the world so we’re locked in.”
By the end of Monday’s game, the entire Boeheim’s Army bench was standing and yelling out pointers to the guys engaged in Elam battle.
Everybody on that bench, Devendorf said, was screaming for McCullough to take that critical shot. He was open. And the shot clock was winding down.
“He had a wide-open three,” Devendorf said. “But it was a good decision. He knocked it down. Can’t complain about that. Big shot by Chris.”
Contact Donna Ditota anytime: Email | Twitter
MORE TBT
Boeheim’s Army sneaks past Team Heartfire to advance in TBT (Donna Ditota’s Quick Hits)
Boeheim’s Army box score vs. Heartfire in The Basketball Tournament
The internet reacts to Tyler Lydon’s T-shirt: ‘Give Jim Boeheim his wins back’