It wasn’t exactly how head coach Josh Jamieson would have drawn it up, but Always Us held on to defeat the Peoria All-Stars 79-73 to advance in The Basketball Tournament where the eventual winners will split a $1 million grand prize.
The team made up of former Oregon Duck hoopsters outscored Peoria 30-15 in the third quarter to break away from what was a 30-30 contest at halftime.
Always Us eventually built up a 70-59 before the first dead ball under the four-minute mark. That’s when the “Elam Ending” comes into play. The game clock is turned off and a target score is established, which is eight more points than what the leading team has. So in this game, it was the first team to get 78 wins.
To Peoria’s credit, they didn’t exactly go away quietly. After Mike Moser nailed a three to make it 73-59, Peoria turned up the defensive heat. They went on a 14-5 run to make it 77-73, but Dwayne Benjamin’s rebound slam gave Always Us their first victory in TBT.
Moser led the team with 13 points off the bench and Benjamin added 12 points. Shakur Juiston scored seven points to go with his team-leading eight rebounds. Point guard Johnathan Loyd added seven points and six boards, five of those coming on the offensive end.
Lashlan Anderson led Peoria with 20 points and Dustin Ware added 19.
With the first-round victory, the 4-seed Always Us will play 5-seed Autism Army, who managed to advance with a 78-46 win over SCD Hoops, a Chicago-based team.
Always Us and Autism Army are scheduled for a Monday morning 11 a.m. PST tip streamed on ESPN3.