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South Orange, N.J. - Boeheim’s Army in Walsh Gymnasium.
That’s how The Basketball Tournament started Tuesday for the Syracuse-based team, which faced (mostly) Seton Hall alums (Hall In) in the best-of-3 series.
We had plenty of news before the ball was even tipped (see below).
Let’s get to the game itself.
Halftime: Boeheim’s Army 44, Hall In 29. Final: Boeheim’s Army 82, Hall In 52.
Game 2 and Game 3 (if necessary) will take place in Syracuse at the War Memorial. Thursday’s game is at 7 p.m.
Here’s what happened:
Cole Swider reminded all of us why he was such a crucial add to this team.
He really shot it well.
Swider scored a game-high 16 in the first half. He started slowly, didn’t try to force anything and was just money when he got it behind the arc with time and space.
He closed the half with a rebound of a long Tyson Walker missed 3. He grabbed the miss and lofted a mid-range jumper that fell as the halftime clock expired.
And he kept making shots, even after intermission. He drained one with about 2:10 left in third that was heavily contested. No matter. That ball went down, he had 24 all by himself and BA led 56-40.
Swider finished with a game-high 28.
Elijah Hughes was good in that first half, too. He scored eight first-half points (2-of-3 from 3) and finished with 12.
The only real problem from a Hall In scoring perspective was Colby Rogers, who kept banging 3s. He made 3-of-6 and had 11 halftime points for Hall In.
The revelation, for me, was Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu (hereby known as KAE for brevity and my sanity).
The guy has a non-stop motor.
He blocks shots, he finishes lob passes. He’s really fun to watch.
Boeheim’s Army, which had very limited practice time, had a bit of trouble early trying to find KAE with a lob. But then Walker and KAE found their timing/rhythm out of the pick and roll and nobody from Hall In was stopping that.
KAE had eight points and nine rebounds at the break. The stats here are not ideal. They do not, for example, keep individual blocks. KAE had at least two in that first half.
Hall In did a better job in the second half of sending multiple defenders to him on those lob attempts.
But he is tough cover in TBT, mostly because of his bounciness.
He finished with 17 and 11.
Boeheim’s Army led by 18 early in the third quarter, but got a little messy and the Hall kinda, sorta capitalized. The home team crept to within 13, but then Walker drove it and scored and Swider made another 3.
So much for that.
When Eric Devendorf sank two free throws, BA led 61-40 late in the third.
(Devendorf, who told me he was only on the team because BA needed a certain number of former SU guys, made a 3 and converted one of his sweet lefty drives.)
The Elam Ending started with Boeheim’s Army ahead 74-45. The target score was 82, which if my math is correct, meant Hall In needed to miraculously score 37 points before BA scored eight.
Here’s how Boeheim’s Army finished the game: Swider lane jumper, KAE two finishes off lob passes from Hughes, Ty Nichols with a leaner in the lane.
Before the game began, Boeheim’s Army had news.
Wes Johnson, who pledged to play in TBT this year, was not in New Jersey Tuesday with the team. GM Shaun Belbey said Johnson told him right before the game began that he had Big 3 responsibilities Tuesday but would likely be in Syracuse on Thursday for Game 2 in the best-of-3 series.
JaCorey Williams, a big man with loads of experience, was also not in New Jersey. He was to play for Boeheim’s Army. I’ll ask about him after the game. That meant Boeheim’s Army had eight guys available for Tuesday’s game. (Luckily, TBT allows six fouls.)
The potentially bigger news was that Isaiah Whitehead has a hand injury and was not available to play Tuesday, either. Whitehead was the centerpiece of Seton Hall’s team. He was, in his day, an explosive scorer.
Seton Hall had seven players to start the game.
Army starters: Buddy Boeheim, Elijah Hughes, Cole Swider, KAE, Tyson Walker.
NOTES - Less than four hours before Tuesday’s game, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for the area. Yikes. No tornado, but lots and lots and lots of rain. ... I’d never been to Walsh Gymnasium before, oddly. It’s very small, but nice. I thought there’d be some SU fans from Jersey, but if they were in the building, they were pretty quiet. Hall In fans turned up the volume a bit, but their team was losing for most of the game, so aside from booing the officials, people just mostly sat and watched the game. Though, props to the remaining fans who chanted “De-Fense” with the Hall down 80-52.
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