SerpApi.Org
It was nice to have you back in Lexington, Mr. Goodwin.
Led by 22 points from Archie Goodwin, La Familia beat The Ville 63-57 in the third matchup of a three-game series, keeping the Kentucky alums alive in The Basketball Tournament on Wednesday night in Memorial Coliseum. After missing the first two games of the series, Goodwin took over down the stretch of Game 3, scoring the final two buckets in the Elam Ending to secure the victory.
Goodwin was aided by 20 points from Darryl Morsell while Willie Cauley-Stein added 10 points and 11 rebounds. Montrezl Harrell wasn’t nearly as destructive as he was in Game 2 on Monday, finishing with “only” 18 points and eight rebounds on 7-15 shooting. It was a tough start for the former Wildcats, but that only made the second-half comeback that much more exciting.
With the win, La Familia advances to the second round of TBT. They’ll play again on Sunday back in Memorial to kick off the single-elimination portion of the winner-takes-all $2 million bracket.
The bad vibes from Game 2 carried over into the first quarter of Game 3 for La Familia. It wasn’t because Harrell was straight-up dominating, either. The Ville jumped out to an early 11-6 lead, taking more than double the number of field goal attempts than La Familia. But Harrell was still finding too many easy buckets around the rim. He had nine points through the first quarter as The Ville led 21-13. La Familia was shooting just 4-12 (1-6 3PT) from the field.
Momentum began to shift midway in the second frame, though. The UK alums, led by terrific two-way play from Cauley-Stein, slowly made their comeback. La Familia was able to get the crowd into the game with a timely 6-0 run right before halftime. It was just a 30-25 lead for The Ville at the intermission as both sides were shooting under 38 percent from the field. It wasn’t exactly pretty basketball — made worse by three lengthy reviews — but we had a close contest at the break.
La Familia continued its run to begin the third. It started as an 8-2 run before ballooning to 16-4. The UK alums took their first lead 33-32 before going up by as many as seven. The Ville had to call a pair of timeouts in quick succession to stop the bleeding. Harrell was struggling to even get the ball. La Familia had the Big Blue Nation buzzing, taking a 45-40 lead into the final period.
The Ville wouldn’t go away that easily, keeping the score within five points to begin the frame. A clutch and-one on a three-pointer by Goodwin allowed La Familia to make it 55-51 going into the Elam Ending. The target score was set at 63. A couple of big threes by The Ville soon made it a 57-57 ball game, but a 6-0 run by La Familia, capped off by back-to-back buckets by Goodwin, gave the UK alums the 63-57 win.
Ls down, folks.
