The Basketball Tournament 2018: Golden Eagles Advances To Their Third Straight Quarterfinals

At some point, we have to discuss whether or not Jamil Wilson is the best player in this year’s edition of The Basketball Tournament.

The former Marquette Golden Eagles forward scored all seven points that Golden Eagles needed in the Elam Ending all by himself for the second time in three games, AND in this case, he did it in the span of about 20 seconds. The #3 seeded MU alumni team picks up the win over #15 seed Talladega Knights, 73-66, and advances to the quarterfinals for the third year in a row.

Golden Eagles went into the Elam Ending with a 66-62 advantage, but the Knights got the first two buckets after the clock was turned off to knot things at 66 each. Then this happened.

First Wilson buries a three from the top of the key, and to make things worse for Talladega Knights, he was fouled in the act of shooting. 1) Never foul a jump shooter and 2) If you’re going to foul a jump shooter, get your money’s worth. Wilson calmly knocked home the freebie, which set up TK’s final possession of the game. That ends when Wilson blocks the holy hell out of a shot at the rim and Maurice Acker comes up with the rebound. Acker finds Travis Diener, he finds Wilson coming up the sideline, and BOOOOM from deeeeep range, Wilson scores his seventh point in less than 30 seconds and we are OUTTA HERE.

It was a very exciting and dramatic ending to a game that.... wellllll.... was not all that fun to watch. Both teams shot under 42% from the field, and Golden Eagles’ 36% percent from long range in the game only happened because they knocked down six of their nine treys in the third quarter. Not great, Bob! It was that white hot shooting for the nine minutes of the third quarter that helped Golden Eagles rally from down six at the half, so yaaaaay.

Wilson was the star of the game, scoring 24 points after knocking in MU’s final seven points of the game. He was almost exclusively a scorer in this one, grabbing just one rebound. He did have three blocks, though, and one of his other two came just a slight bit before what could be called his game-winning block. Jerel McNeal had 16 points in a foul-ridden 27 minutes, and he added five rebounds, three assists, and three steals along the way. Samme Givens was Talladega Knights’ top scorer with 18 points and he tacked on 11 rebounds as part of TK’s overall dominance against the Marquette guys inside all game long.

How about a full game highlight package?

Up Next: After winning in the first game on Saturday, Golden Eagles will be back in action in the second game on Sunday. It’ll be #1 seed vs #3 seed as we get an Old Big East battle in the quarterfinals/regional finals. Boeheim’s Army, the squad of Syracuse Orange alumni, advanced past Armored Athlete on Saturday, 73-69, to set up the Marquette/Syracuse game with a spot in the semifinals on August 2nd on the line.