2016 The Basketball Tournament: Golden Eagles Alumni 82, Armored Athlete 71

Darius Johnson-Odom drilled a dagger of a three-pointer on a broken play late and Golden Eagles Alumni, the squad of former Marquette players, held on for the 82-71 win over the #7 seed Armored Athlete in the Super 16 round of the 2016 edition of The Basketball Tournament. #6 seed GEA advances to the tournament’s quarterfinals on Saturday night, where they’ll play Always A Brave, a team of Bradley University alums.

It was a back and forth affair, with neither side really getting anything resembling an advantage until DJO remembered he’s actually 3JO late in the game. It was a one point game at the half, with Armored Athlete holding the 38-37 advantage. It was the play of the Marquette guys that came off the bench that did a number on AA. Jamil Wilson was frightening with 16 points, eight rebounds, an assist, two blocks, and two steals. Johnson-Odom finished with 15 points after that late triple, and Davante Gardner made his TBT debut by collecting 15 points, six rebounds, two assists, and three blocks, all in just 18 minutes.

Draining three pointers had been a hallmark of GEA’s offense in their first two TBT games, but their touch left them in this game. They shot just 32% from distance against AA, but they made the most important ones, going 3-6 on triples in the second half. Noted sniper Joe Chapman tried to recapture the magic from the first weekend, but ended up just 1-6.

Both teams shot the ball relatively the same both overall and from the three point line, but it was the shots from the charity stripe that might have tilted the game in GEA’s favor. Armored Athlete got seven more free throw attempts in the first half (16-9), but they only made three more than GEA (11-8). After halftime, though, things swung in Marquette’s favor as they went 14-15 on freebies while AA was only 4-7.

We haven’t even mentioned Dwight Buycks here yet, and he led Marquette in scoring with 23 points on 7-13 shooting. Former Hoosier and team leader Will Sheehey led Armored Athlete with 20 points.

Always A Brave, the #9 seed in the Midwest Region, advanced to the quarterfinals courtesy of a 92-65 victory over Pedro’s Posse. In case you were wondering, yes, that’s right, they smoked the team with Mike Bibby and Jason “White Chocolate” Williams. The GEA/AAB game is scheduled to start at 7pm Central and will be televised on ESPN2.