Herd That had gotten to within two points of Team Heartfire on a Jon Elmore driving basket, the first points of the contest for one of the team’s top offensive options.
Trailing 70-68 and with a target score of 73, Marshall’s alumni-based team was in need of multiple defensive stops if it hoped to overcome woeful three-point shooting and offensive struggles for much of its semifinal in The Basketball Tournament.
While Heartfire missed its next two field-goal attempts, the third time proved to be the charm and prevented Herd That from ever getting the ball back. Raphiael Putney took a pass from Tevin Mack and what came off his hands looking like a perimeter shot that had too much on it, instead banked off the backboard and went through for a winning three-pointer, lifting Heartfire to a 73-68 victory at Drexel University’s John A. Daskalakis Athletic Center.
“It doesn’t matter what happened in the previous games, it’s about what happens in the moment,” Elmore said. “I fee like we just had a little bit of a letdown. That hurts and it’s a sad way to go out, but a heck of a journey.”
Heartfire moves on to play Bleed Green in Thursday’s title game for $1 million, while Herd That’s deepest TBT run yet came to an end on the brink of the final.
RAPHIAEL PUTNEY CALLS BANK!!!!!!!!
HE JUST BANKED IN THE ELAM ENDER TO SEND HEARTFIRE TO TBT’S CHAMPIONSHIP😱
Heartfire is ONE WIN AWAY from $1,000,000 pic.twitter.com/zJMLxWqai2
— TBT (@thetournament) August 3, 2023
Herd That began to charge back from a 15-point deficit from the outset of the fourth quarter.
After scoring the first five points of the fourth, Herd That fell behind by 13 moments later, but a Taevion Kinsey layup and JP Tokoto jumper made it a single-digit deficit and sent their team into the Elam Ending trailing, 65-56.
Rob Gray’s three-pointer — Herd That’s only one after 17 previous misses — cut Heartfire’s lead to 67-59. After Putney scored inside, Tokoto did the same and came up with a steal that allowed him to find James Kelly for a conventional three-point play and Herd That to cut a 10-point deficit in half in less than 5 seconds.
Kelly followed with a steal and assisted a Jacorey Williams dunk that made it a one-possession game, though Eric Griffin countered with 1-of-2 free throws to give Heartfire a four-point advantage.
The teams then traded turnovers, before Elmore, who had been hounded throughout the evening by a swarm of defenders, scored on a drive.
Herd That never regained possession. Instead, Griffin rebounded a Craig Sword miss, and Mack did the same on a Marcus Hall miss, before Putney banked in the winning bucket.
Save for the first quarter, in which Heartfire shot 2 for 14 and did not make a triple on five attempts, Herd That struggled for much of the matchup.
A 16-9 lead through one frame was erased 1:32 into the second when Hall hit a trey to knot the contest at 16. That was part of a stretch where Heartfire outscored Herd That 22-3 over the first 6:51 of the second period, and it ended with Mack converting a layup off a turnover for a 31-19 lead.
Tokoto, Herd That’s most productive player throughout, countered with consecutive field goals to spark a 9-3 spurt to end the half, which cut Heartfire’s lead to six.
But Herd That, which made 11-of-31 shots and missed all 11 three-point attempts in the opening half, struggled to again develop offensive rhythm in the third quarter. Heartfire’s lead was 38-35 after one Jacorey Williams free throw, but a 13-0 run followed, featuring back-to-back baskets from Mack, a Griffin jumper, three free throws from Davin White and four from Sword for a 51-35 lead.
Herd That misfired on all four of its treys in the third and hurt its cause by making 9-of-17 free throws in a foul-filled quarter, before it entered the fourth trailing, 60-45.
Tokoto led all players with 27 points, making 9-of-13 field-goal attempts in the process. He also had a game-best nine rebounds.
Gray followed with 16 points. Williams was the team’s next highest scorer with eight points, but he was responsible for half of the team’s 12 missed free throws.
Elmore made 1-of-8 shots but contributed seven boards and five assists in the losing effort.
Putney and Mack led a balanced Heartfire attack with 14 points apiece. Griffin added 10 to go with eight boards.
Hall scored nine and became the all-time leading scorer in TBT history. Sword added eight, while Richard Solomon contributed six points and eight rebounds.