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In its first The Basketball Tournament finals appearance, No. 3 seed Boeheim’s Army successfully secured $1 million with a 69-67 win over No.6 seed Team 23 on Tuesday. Keifer Sykes led BA off the bench with 21 points and the game-winning 3-pointer in the Elam Ending.

Here are three takeaways from Boeheim’s Army’s championship-game win over Team 23:

Rice and Sykes dominate

After DeAndre Kane left the court with an apparent groin injury, head coach Jeremy Pope had to make some lineup changes. Pope resorted to a guard-heavy lineup that’s usually saved for the Elam Ending, highlighted by Tyrese Rice and Sykes. 

Rice was first to score, calling an isolation play at the top of the key and using one head fake to get to the basket. A minute later, Rice isolated himself again, before stepping back and draining a 3 to cut Team 23’s lead to one point. Then, Sykes replicated Rice, hesitating and gaining a step on his defender for a layup to give BA a lead going into the second quarter. 

At the start of the second half, Team 23 fought back into the game with a 10-4 run to take a five-point lead. Team 23 capped off the run with an acrobatic layup by Eric Washington before Rice sprinted back the other way. Rice worked his way from the left wing to the center with one crossover, hitting another 3 to bring BA back into the game. 

Like clockwork, Sykes took over where Rice left off, directing traffic in the fourth quarter. Sykes waited at the top of the key before sinking a right-handed floater with contact. On BA’s next possession, Sykes took the ball up again, this time hitting a deep 2 from the left wing. But Sykes wasn’t done, finding Chris McCullough on the ensuing possession to cap a 7-0 run by BA. 

In the Elam Ending — where Rice has been BA’s closer throughout the tournament — Sykes again took his turn. On their first possession, Sykes drew a foul on a deep 3-point shot, hitting every free throw to bring Boeheim’s Army within five points of the championship. 

With a 3-pointer needed to win, Sykes utilized the same play that worked for him throughout the entirety of the game, isolating himself on the right wing. Directing traffic, Sykes sprinted to his spot and launched the shot that would successfully get BA $1 million for the first time in TBT history.

Cleaning the glass

Both teams crashed the boards early to try to get as many shot opportunities as possible, with BA emerging as the early winner of the battle. 

On Boeheim’s Army’s first possession of the game, Malachi Richardson missed early in the shot clock with the ball deflecting off the left side of the rim. But Rice was able to collect the rebound and give McCullough his own attempt from deep. Rice again collected the ball off the miss before heaving a shot. Three offensive rebounds later, D.J. Kennedy found the back of the net with a mid-range jumper. 

By the end of the first half, BA had 10 second-chance points, while Team 23 had none. In the second half, Tyler Lydon and Kennedy positioned themselves near the boards for nearly every possession. 

At the end of the third quarter, Lydon and Kennedy braced boxed out defenders on a shot from Rice. Kennedy got the board before being fouled on the putback and made one free throw to cut Team 23’s lead to three. 

Kennedy again came in clutch in the Elam Ending with his positioning in the paint. With Rice streaking down the lane for a layup, Kennedy made his way to the right block in the paint, collecting Rice’s miss and scoring to bring BA one basket away from winning. 

Bench buckets

Halfway through the first quarter, Kane isolated himself at the top of the key. Kane crossed the ball between his legs before cutting hard to the basket and scoring. But directly after finishing, Kane emerged in pain, limping over to the bench and falling to the floor as he held his groin. 

Without Kane, Boeheim’s Army’s remaining players had to step up — and its bench was up for the challenge. Eric Devendorf was the first to hit off the bench, sinking a deep 3-pointer to break an 0-for-5 opening stretch from behind the arc. Andrew White III entered the game a few minutes later in the second quarter, scoring five points by the conclusion of the period. In the first half, Boeheim’s Army’s bench had 17 points.

BA’s bench contributed in the second half with six more points by the midway point of the third quarter. While guards dominated the first half, power forward Lydon came off the bench for most of the period. He was crucial in the pick and roll, finishing with six points in the game. BA finished with 39 points off the bench.

Published on August 3, 2021 at 11:19 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu