Tag: Johnathan Loyd

Former Oregon guard Jacob Young joins Team Always Us

Former Oregon guard Jacob Young has signed on with Team Always Us in hopes of winning a million dollars.

A bunch of Oregon men’s basketball alumni came together last summer and competed for a million-dollar prize in The Basketball Tournament made up of 64 teams in eight different regions.

Team Always Us, the Oregon squad, has announced they have signed Jacob Young to the roster. They made their tournament debut last summer and won a game before falling to Autism Army in the second round.

Young averaged 12 points and 3.4 assists a game in his only season at Oregon.

This version of Team Always Us will be led by EJ Singler and Johnathan Loyd with current Duck assistant coach Mike Mennenga helming the sideline.

Team Always Us, taken from Dana Altman’s saying of “Sometimes you. Sometimes me. Always us,” will open up in the Omaha Region as the 4-seed playing 5-seed Jackson TN Underdawgs. The game will be on July 16 at 3 p.m. PST and will be televised on one of the ESPN channels.

Always Us dominates the third quarter to advance in The Basketball Tournament

A huge third quarter and Dwayne Benjamin’s rebound dunk gave Always Us their first victory in TBT and one step closer to $1 million.

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.