A new champion will be crowned in the second annual Basketball Tournament.
The 97-team field is down to four, and the defending champs are not amongst the remaining squads. City of Gods, Team 23, Overseas Elite and The Ants Alumni all emerged from a weekend field of 17 that squared off on the campus of DePaul University in Chicago over the weekend to punch their tickets to New York City for the semifinals and finals of the $1 million, winner-take-all tourney.
The semifinals will take place on Saturday, August 1, before the finals commence the following day, with all games scheduled to be played at Fordham University’s Rose Hill Gymnasium. Tickets start at $20 and rise to $100 for courtside seats for the semifinals, and $200 for the same seats during the championship game.
City of Gods knocked off Boeheim’s Army, one of the tournament’s favorites, to deny New York City an area representative in the Championship Weekend and thwart Orangeman coach Jim Boeheim’s hopes of watching a team largely composed of his former players play for the title.
In registering their 80-76 Elite Eight win, City of Gods converted seven three-pointers in the second half, not to mention while holding off a furious charge from their opponents. Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Devin Sweetney each netted 16 points in the effort to pace the victors.
In perhaps the stunner of the tournament, Ants Alumni paved the way for their New York City excursion by first knocking off the defending champion Fighting Alumni of Notre Dame, 89-84, in overtime behind Sadiel Rojas’ 20 points and 10 rebounds. Largely comprised of players from the Fort Wayne Mad Ants’ 2014 D-League championship-winning team, the Ants then downed high-scoring Armored Athlete, 76-72, behind Anthony Harris’ 14 point and steady contributions from the likes Stephen Graham, Trey McKinney-Jones, Tommy Smith and Ron Howard.
Overseas Elite advanced by holding off Dirty South behind a dominant 24-point, 18-rebound performance from former St. John’s star D.J. Kennedy. In pacing Elite to the tournament’s fifth win by ten points or less in less than 72 hours, Kennedy shot 8-of-15 to help his team overcome its dismal 31-percent overall shooting.
Elite dressed just six players for their quarterfinal victory, leaving point guard Myck Kabongo more convinced than ever they’ll be even stronger once they make it to New York.
“We’ll be at full strength in New York,” he said. “And, we’ll be ready to go.”
Finally, 13th-seeded Team 23 from the West Region, the unlikeliest team left in the field, forced LAUNFD into 24 turnovers and held them to just 38 percent shooting in racing to a 77-56 quarterfinal round victory.
LAUNFD turned the ball over 24 times, and Team 23 tallied a whopping 14 steals as a result.
Augustine Okosun and Davin White led the way for the winners with 18 points each.