Kentucky’s run in The Basketball Tournament has already taken a few hits, but La Familia is still standing.
That was the big takeaway after Wednesday’s 63-57 win over The Ville at Memorial Coliseum, a result that pushed the former Wildcats into the quarterfinals of the TBT’s single-elimination bracket. Now the margin for error disappears completely, and the next challenge comes fast: Boeheim’s Army, the Syracuse alumni team, in Lexington.
La Familia enters Sunday’s game with some injury concerns still hanging around. Willie Cauley-Stein was slowed by an ailment in the first two games of the best-of-three series against The Ville. Deandre Liggins sat out the deciding Game 3, and Andrew Harrison was limping late in that win.
Still, first-year coach Jon Hood didn’t sound alarmed after Wednesday’s victory.
"Everybody's all right," he said following Wednesday's six-point win. "We get three days.
We'll be fine. ... We survive (and) advance with who we have."
Hood also said Liggins could have played if absolutely necessary.
Had it come to that, Liggins could have taken the floor "in an emergency situation."
It didn’t come to that, thanks to the rest of La Familia getting the job done.
Now the former Kentucky players are one win away from the championship round of the TBT’s “Alumni Bracket.” If they beat Boeheim’s Army today, they’ll move on to the semifinals.
The matchup is set for 2 p.m. today at Memorial Coliseum and will air nationally on Fox.
La Familia’s TBT path has included games on Saturday, July 18; Monday, July 20; and Wednesday, July 22, when it beat The Ville 63-57 in Game 3. The next stop is Sunday, July 26, for the quarterfinal against Boeheim’s Army.
Tickets for today’s game were listed at $15.20 as of 2 p.m. Friday, July 24.
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La Familia had to sweat through a second-round test in The Basketball Tournament, but it got the job done with a 70-66 win over Boeheim's Army and kept its run alive. Archie Goodwin carried the scoring load with 30 points and five 3-pointers, while Darryl Morsell chipped in 11 points and 12 rebounds to help steady a group of former Kentucky players in a game that stayed tight deep into the finish.
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