PEORIA (HOI) -- With less than five minutes to play in the fourth quarter of its opening round matchup of The Basketball Tournament, Bradley alumni squad Always a Brave looked down and out. They trailed by 16 points to Chicago Hoopville Warriors with the patented Elam Ending target-score of 74 quickly approaching. But Always a Brave proved you can never count Bradley out.
The Hoopville Warriors had plenty of opportunities to hit the target score of 74 late in the game and were even stuck on 73 for quite some time, but a bevy of missed free throws left the door open for Always a Brave and they took advantage.
The former Bradley stars went on a 14-1 run in the closing minutes of the game thanks to some stars from the Braves 2006 Sweet 16 run, including Patrick O'Bryant, Tony Bennett and Marcellus Sommerville who was dominant in the late stretch and led the Braves with 17 points. The run, though, was capped off by one of the youngest guys on the team as Class of 2019 star Darrell Brown drilled a three in the closing seconds to tie the game at 73.
With the target score of 74 in sight, the next bucket won the game and that next bucket belonged to Sommerville. After grabbing a rebound off a Hoopville Warriors Miss, Brown fired a full-court pass to Sommerville who laid it in for the win and was mobbed just seconds after by his teammates and fans. But always humble, Sommerville was just glad to get the win
"Felt great," Sommerville said. " [Felt] telief and then they jumped on me and I lost all my breath. But it felt good though to be able to win."
In the end, it was the missed free throws from the Hoopville Warriors that kept Always a Brave within striking distance.
"When they kept missing their free throws, I just knew, yeah, our time's gonna come," Tony Bennett said. "We were sneakin' up on 'em, we sneakin' up on 'em. Sure enough, we got it easier than I thought we would with Marcellus getting the layup but it was one of the hardest games ever."
It was a resilient and hard-fought victory that proved this Always a Brave team won't ever give up, something they say comes from their Bradley roots.
"Bradley, and it's tradition is built on heart," head coach Daniel Ruffin said. "You know, just watching that and not being able to be out there was killing me. I want to thamk them for giving me my first win on this level and we've got many more to come."
Always a Brave advances to the second round of TBT on Monday when they'll take on Jackson TN Underdawgs who topped Illini alumni squad House of 'Paign earlier in the day. That game is set for 8:00 p.m. on Monday at Carver Arena.
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Marcellus Sommerville's last-minute lay-in gives Always a Brave first-round TBT win - HOI ABC
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