A 21-0 run to start the second quarter propelled Carmen’s Crew to a first-round win in The Basketball Tournament.
The Ohio State alumni team dominated its first game of this year’s TBT on Saturday, defeating Purple Hearts 93-58 to advance to the second round, where it will play Dayton alumni team Red Scare on Monday.
The brotherly tandem of Andre and Kaleb Wesson led Carmen’s Crew to victory with 12 points each. A pair of non-Ohio State alumni, Desonta Bradford (East Tennessee State) and Jamel Morris (Fairmont State), joined them in double digits for Carmen’s Crew with 11 points each. Jared Sullinger scored nine points in his first TBT game as a player since 2018 while Keyshawn Woods scored eight and Kyle Young scored seven.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | FINAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #3 Carmen’s Crew | 18 | 27 | 26 | 22 | 93 |
| #6 Purple Hearts | 19 | 4 | 18 | 17 | 58 |
Carmen’s Crew got off to a slow start, missing its first four field goal attempts of the game to fall into an early 7-0 hole. Sullinger ended the early drought by turning an offensive rebound into a second-chance bucket. Andre Wesson followed that up with 3-pointers on each of Carmen’s Crew’s next two possessions to give the Ohio State alumni team its first lead of the game.
Neither team would lead by more than three points for the rest of the first quarter, which Purple Hearts ended with a 19-18 lead.
Carmen’s Crew quickly turned up the heat by scoring the first 21 points of the second quarter, a run that included eight points from Bradford, a pair of 3-pointers from Morris and five points from Young. Carmen’s Crew took a 45-23 lead into halftime as Purple Hearts scored only four second-quarter points.
.@CarmensCrew STARTED THE 2ND QUARTER ABSOLUTELY SCORCHING HOT ON A 21-0 RUN!
— TBT (@thetournament) July 20, 2024
They go into halftime up 45-23! Catch the 2nd half on @BigTenNetwork pic.twitter.com/3r5pCJhff9
Sullinger scored five of the second half’s first nine points as Carmen’s Crew started the third quarter on a 7-2 run to extend its lead to 27 points. Purple Hearts responded with a 7-0 run to trim Carmen’s Crew’s lead to 20, but the Ohio State alumni team responded with an 11-1 run to build the lead back up to 30, ultimately finishing the third quarter with a 71-41 advantage.
Carmen’s Crew extended its lead to 83-50 by the four-minute mark of the fourth quarter to set the Elam Ending target score at 91. 43-year-old Otterbein alumnus Jeff Gibbs, who entered the game for its final moments following a “We Want Gibbs!” chant from the Dayton crowd, made a 3-pointer from the top of the key to seal a 93-58 victory for Carmen’s Crew.
"EVERYONE IN THE BUILDING WANTED IT AND JEFF GIBBS DELIVERS" @CarmensCrew DOMINATE THEIR WAY TO THE 2ND ROUND! @OhioStateHoops | @BigTenNetwork pic.twitter.com/b5YeUZKu90
— TBT (@thetournament) July 21, 2024
The 35-point win was the largest margin of victory in the history of Carmen‘s Crew, which now has an 18-5 all-time record in TBT.
Monday’s second-round game between Carmen’s Crew and Red Scare will tip off at 8 p.m. at Dayton’s UD Arena. The game will be televised on FS2.
