The Game may have been played in Brooklyn but the atmosphere was like an old Big East battle at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse New York. Boeheim’s Army a team full of Syracuse University Alumni took on Team Fancy headlined by Scott Machado (Iona Gaels) and Delroy James (University of Rhode Island), in the Super 16 round of “The Basketball Tournament”.
The Basketball Tournament was mentioned in our piece “There’s Nothing Like Summer Basketball In NYC” as an event to take in this summer. The Basketball tournament is a NCAA style tournament where 64 teams are selected and battle for the chance to win two million dollars. If you were in attendance for tonight’s doubleheader you were not disappointed.
Game two was a feisty back and forth battle between Boeheim’s Army and Team Fancy. Scott Machado and Team Fancy would get off to a quick start but the Syracuse faithful wouldn’t let their team get down, standing and cheering until they scored their first basket. The intensity on defense was there for both teams leading both of them to shoot 20% from three-point range.
Once the second half began Eric Devendorf was unleashed shooting 50% from the field and attacking the basket. Devendorf finished the game with 17 points but one of his biggest plays was an assist to Brandon Triche. Who hit a late corner three-pointer to give Boeheim’s Army a one-point lead with less than a minute to go.
“Just confident in myself and my abilities even if I miss 5 in a row I’m going to keep going and that next one I’m getting to the rim,” said Devendorf. “I missed a few open three’s throughout the game so I feel like I was due for one, just doing whatever I can to help the team,” said Triche.
Triche who suffered a dislocated finger in the first half would drain four straight free-throws with under 20 seconds left to cap off the 65-61 win over Team Fancy.
“That was a tough game back and forth they took the lead but we did a good job of making plays towards the end, we made plays we needed to,” said coach Ryan Blackwell.
Team Fancy went into the second half down but came out firing and quickly took the lead. Led by Scott Machado (11 points), Zamel Nixon (12 points), and Ra’Shad James (14 points), Team Fancy was able to keep the game close. Nixon and Machado were talking back and forth with Eric Devendorf all night making the game more fun to watch.
“I love it people get it misunderstood, this is what we love to do we are passionate about this and I’m competitive, I may be a little extra but it’s nothing personal,” said Devendorf. “If you interview Scott Machado he’s going to tell you the same thing we were going back and forth because we have respect for each other.”
In Game One of tonight’s doubleheader, we saw Team FOE take on FCM Untouchable. Team FOE had a lot of familiar faces along their bench with Washington Wizard Markief Morris as the GM, Boston Celtic Marcus Morris as the coach and Los Angeles Laker Thomas Robinson as the assistant coach. Playing the guard positions for Team FOE were former Brooklyn Net Tyshawn Taylor and Villanova University Alum Maalik Wayns.
Both teams played a tightly contested game in the first half shooting lights out from the field. St. Johns Alum Marcus Hatten would try his best to keep FCM Untouchable in the game scoring 19 points, but Team FOE would pull away to a 20 point lead in the second half behind Maalik Wayns and Elijah Johnson.
“I was trying to control the game and control the tempo if I got a shot take it if I have an open man run it,” said Wayns. “We’ve been running some plays, we got some good practices in this week, so we got some sets in and we just tried to execute the game plan.”
Coach Marcus would go to a four guard and one big lineup late in the game to help seal an 85-71 win for Team FOE over FCM Untouchables.
“Going into it, we knew we had the better guards and we stayed downhill made each other better, having Maalik back was big for us,” said Marcus Morris.
Team FOE will take on Boeheim’s Army Saturday in the Elite 8 matchup on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. at LIU Brooklyn Campus. Both teams have guards who can catch fire, it will be interesting to see how Team FOE handles that patented 2-3 zone from Boeheim’s Army.