The Basketball Tournament 2021 Recap: #1 Golden Eagles 71, #9 Playing For Jimmy V 64

An Elam Ender three-pointer gave Jamil Wilson 17 points on the afternoon to lead top seeded Golden Eagles to the 71-64 victory over #9 seed Playing For Jimmy V in the second round of The Basketball Tournament on Monday.

It was a short turnaround for the Marquette alumni squad after playing on Sunday evening, and an even shorter turnaround for the Jimmy V squad as they didn’t tip off their first round contest til the MU game was over. Is that why this was a one point game in favor of Jimmy V at the end of the first quarter, 21-20, and again at halftime, 38-37? Maybe? Golden Eagles led by as many as five points at three different points in the first half, but the charity minded opposition kept firing back to keep things close after 18 minutes.

Both teams took small advantages in the third quarter, with a layup from Wilson putting MU up three, 45-42, with five minutes left in the period. That margin didn’t last, as a triple from Dee Bost had the Marquette team down three, 50-47, with 3:14 to go. At the end of the frame, it was Wilson again, answering a Corey Sanders bucket to knot the game at 52 apiece heading to the fourth quarter.

A layup with 6:18 to go from Sacar Anim, who did not play at all on Sunday, gave Golden Eagles their biggest lead of the game at six, 60-54, and Wilson answered a three by Tyler Stone with one of his own to push it back to six, 63-57. The last scoring before the Elam Ending was a pair of freebies from Stone, so the MU guys started the untimed finale with a four point advantage.

Playing For Jimmy V scored first in the Elam Ending, but the next five came from Maurice Acker and Derrick Wilson, getting the Marquette squad to within three of the Target Score and up to their largest lead of the game at seven, 68-61. PJV had one more gasp in them, but Jamil Wilson had seen enough.

Considering the shooting discrepancies and the turnover discrepancies, I’m shocked that this game stayed as close as it did for as long as it did. Golden Eagles threw up an effective field goal percentage of 51.5% in this one while holding PJV to just 45.5%. Turnovers? Only nine total for the Marquette squad, which amounts to 13%. The other guys? 14 of them, or 20.9%. Sure, Jimmy V’s team had a strong rebounding advantage, hauling in 12 of their misses for second chances, but that didn’t tip the scales in their favor.

In all fairness, I did not get to watch this game live because that’s how daytime basketball scheduling goes sometimes. Here’s a few thoughts from the Twitter-sphere:

The only guys who scored in double digits for Golden Eagles were in the starting lineup. Elgin Cook shot a perfect 7-for-7 from the field for 16 points to go with five rebounds, while Dwight Buycks struggled through 4-for-12 shooting to get to 11 on the day. Matt Lojeski his just one of his four long range attempts in the game, but he chipped in seven rebounds, while Travis Diener and Maurice Acker tied for the team high with five assists each.

Wanna watch some highlights?

Up Next: A day off! The whole Illinois Regional is off on Tuesday to prepare for the final day of action on Wednesday. Golden Eagles will be back in action at 8pm Central time to face #5 seed Autism Army. AA knocked off #4 seeded Always Us, the Oregon alumni team, 76-71, in the second round to get to this point. Looks like that game will be on ESPN2, so that’s fun.