WHEELING, W.Va. — Ahead of the 2023 version of The Basketball Tournament, Herd That felt it had added talent and height that equaled a deeper and more defensive-minded team, enhancing its chances of making a deep run in the annual summer event.
Through three games, Marshall’s alumni-based team has proven just that.
The latest example came Saturday afternoon at WesBanco Arena as Herd That seized control of its contest with Sideline Cancer late in the third quarter and over the early stages of the fourth to pull away for a 73-64 victory in the West Virginia Regional final.
“The word is sacrifice. We have 12 guys that want to play 38 or 40 minutes, but everybody can’t,” Herd That guard Jon Elmore said. “Whoever didn’t get into the game was rooting just as hard as anybody in the whole gym. Having guys that are willing to give up minutes and be selfless is huge. When you have guys that sit down and win their matchups defensively, that goes a long way.”
The result allows Herd That to play again Sunday at 4 p.m. against Boeheim’s Army in Wheeling, with the winner off to Philadelphia for Wednesday’s TBT semifinal.
All nine Herd That players to see action Saturday scored, including seven with at least five points and five with eight-plus points.
“We don’t have to rely on one person to dominate games,” Elmore said. “We can go one through twelve and get contributions from a bunch of guys. A lot of teams go to their bench and there’s a big drop-off, and we go to the bench and they carried us for spurts. Having that depth is huge in this tournament.”
Herd That scored 10 unanswered points to end the opening quarter, turning a two-point deficit into a 21-13 lead after reserve guard Jarrod West made a driving layup just before time expired.
Sideline Cancer ran off the first six points of the second period, though Herd That got a pair of three-pointers from guard Rob Gray to build its lead back to 29-23.
Herd That’s lead was still six late in the opening half, before Sideline Cancer’s Christopher Coffey scored in the paint, allowing his team to enter the intermission trailing 35-31.
Sideline Cancer started the third quarter on an 8-2 spurt for its first lead since 13-11, with that coming at 39-37 on a triple from Marcus Keene, the leading scorer in Division I during the 2016-17 season at Central Michigan.
However, Elmore countered with a conventional three-point play, and thought Keith Braxton Jr. answered with a triple for SC, Elmore converted a short jumper to tie the game at 42.
A three from former NBA player Sindarius Thornwell put Sideline Cancer in front 47-46 with 2:47 left in the third quarter, but proved to be the team’s last lead. Herd That ran off seven straight points courtesy of a Jacorey Williams layup, one free throw from Derek Cooke Jr. and baskets from Taevion Kinsey and JP Tokoto for a six-point lead.
After a triple from former Boston College standout Tyrese Rice cut Sideline Cancer’s deficit in half, West put home a three just before the third-quarter buzzer sounded. West scored all five of his points on his only two field-goal attempts as time wound down in the first and third quarters.
“We had a long clock on both of those,” West said. “I had the ball for a while. At the end of the day, you have to make plays. It’s 1 on 1. Everybody was spaced and you have to be confident in your game and make a play. I was feeling good and just wanted to play with confidence.”
Leading 56-50 to start the fourth quarter, Herd That didn’t letup. Instead, Kinsey accounted for a personal 6-0 run over the first 1:32 of the final frame to double his team’s advantage.
“I’m glad he’s on our team,” Elmore said. “Big plays and contested shots. His length and athleticism and mindset of attacking and playing hard, plays like that win games.”
Tokoto followed with a bucket from close range, and not until Rice scored at the 4-minute mark of the period did Sideline Cancer have a fourth-quarter field goal. At that point, Herd That took a 65-56 lead into the Elam Ending, with the first team to score 73 the winner.
James Kelly and Tokoto made their aggressiveness pay off early into the Elam Ending as both got fouled while driving to the basket and converted two free throws for a 13-point Herd That advantage.
Elmore’s layup made it 71-56 and put Herd That on the brink of advancing, though Sideline Cancer didn’t go down quietly.
Keene and Rice each made a triple as part of an 8-0 spurt that created a seven-point deficit, but Tokoto finished near the rim off a strong take to the basket to give Herd That three victories in TBT for the first time.
Elmore led Herd That with 17 points, Kelly and Tokoto each added 12 and Kinsey contributed 10. Gray followed with eight.
Cooke Jr. led Herd That and all players with 11 rebounds, helping HT control the battle of the boards, 39-32.
“We want to win in the paint and on the three-point line,” said OT Elmore, Herd That coach/GM. “We don’t anybody to beat us anywhere and we’ve done a good job of that in this tournament.”
Sideline Cancer, which shot 40 percent overall and just 8 for 30 from long range, got 20 points from Rice and 13 from Keene in defeat.
“We watched film and came up with a game plan,” Ot Elmore said. “We decided every time those guys come off a pick-and-roll, we’re going to double them.”