Frank Mason III did what he’s been doing all tournament for JHX Hoops: he finished the job.
His game-winning 3-pointer Monday lifted the Kansas alumni team to a 64-59 win over the AfterShocks in The Basketball Tournament, and it was the third straight game in which Mason delivered the decisive shot. The result pushed JHX Hoops into the finals of the alumni side of the TBT bracket, putting them one step from a shot at the championship game against the non-alumni winner.
But the basketball quickly got swallowed up by everything else that happened around it.
What should have been a clean celebration turned into a messy, ugly night in Wichita, with the game and its aftermath defined by tension, an altercation in the second quarter, ejections and the postgame chaos that followed after Wichita State’s alumni team was knocked out. Videos posted on social media by people inside the building showed the celebration giving way to a scene that took the spotlight away from the finish on the floor.
“The ejections, it’s always tough, because guys just being competitors and a little scuffle happens, it’s basketball, it’s a little physical, but within the guys just keep it basketball,” Sherron Collins, listed as JHX Hoops’ head coach on the TBT website, told Kansas Nation. “I think they got personal, too personal, with each other, and then it escalated.
But I, again, TBT handled their job; they ejected a couple of our guys, ejected a couple of their guys, so they acted the right way. They was fair.
And, yeah, we just had to play the hand we was dealt and we came out on top.”
The trouble started late in the second quarter when a confrontation between two players under the basket escalated, and the broadcast said the officials eventually left each team with only six players available for the rest of the game. The edge never really left the matchup from there, and the extra fireworks after the final buzzer only made the night more chaotic.
Collins said in a social media video posted on X that it was unfortunate both teams were reduced to six players, but he liked the six JHX Hoops had. He believed they had the advantage, and Mason along with Zeke Mayo backed that up during the Elam Ending to secure the win.
Now JHX Hoops has to move on quickly. Collins said the work isn’t done yet, and the next test comes Wednesday against La Familia, the Kentucky alumni team.
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