photo by: Justin Mohling/The Basketball Tournament

JHX Hoops' Lagerald Vick celebrates with teammates after scoring the game-winner against Purple Reign on Monday, July 21, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo.

Kansas City, Mo. — The Kansas alumni on JHX Hoops are fully aware of how fortunate they were to get out of Monday night’s rivalry matchup with Purple Reign unscathed.

Shaun Williams of the Kansas State alumni, whose game-winning 3-pointer had gotten Purple Reign out of the first round of The Basketball Tournament, missed a layup and a pair of free throws, any of which would have brought JHX’s run to an end.

“They gave us a freakin’ gift,” said Tyshawn Taylor, JHX’s general manager and the point guard who led its comeback.

“Thank you,” head coach Sherron Collins chimed in.

If not for Williams’ key misses, an ill-timed turnaround fadeaway by Dominique Sutton and the eventual errant pass by Austin Trice that Lagerald Vick jumped on his way to the game-winning layup, the KU alumni would have fallen short of a third straight trip to the round of 16. (They have not yet made it further than that.) The lasting memory of Monday’s game in Kansas City would instead have been a critical turnover by Zeke Mayo, or JHX, three points from its target score, settling for a layup by Taylor when it had drawn up a play for Mayo to get a game-winning 3.

“A couple of calls at the end didn’t go our way,” Taylor said. “and they could have (taken) advantage of that and they didn’t. And we had opportunities, and we took advantage of it.”

Indeed, the KU alumni are still fighting for the $1 million TBT prize, but they will face their biggest test yet on Wednesday evening as they take on No. 1 seed Heartfire at 6 p.m., again at Municipal Auditorium.

Heartfire, which is connected to an Arizona-based organization that organizes mission trips, got a first-round bye because there is no No. 8 seed in the Kansas City region. It then cruised to an 89-70 victory over the No. 4 Sheffield Sharks on Monday evening, led by 20 points and eight rebounds from former Clemson small forward Tevin Mack.

Heartfire has reached the TBT championship on three occasions and even won the title in 2023, the same year it knocked out the KU alumni in Wichita. Former Colorado point guard Marcus Hall, who led all scorers with 15 points in that 2023 matchup, is still a member of Heartfire, as are Eric Griffin (Campbell), Raphiael Putney (UMass) and Craig Sword (Mississippi State).

JHX Hoops’ roster bears little resemblance to the Mass Street team that lost in the third round that year, although JHX does still feature Vick as well as Jamari Traylor and Kevin Young.

Then there’s Taylor, also a player in 2023, who tweaked his groin last week and did not intend to take part in Monday night’s game but had been “kind of joking around” with his teammates, “I got 10 minutes for you guys if you need me.”

“I was like, ‘You know what, if I see something in the game where I feel like I can actually help us, I’ll throw myself out there,'” Taylor said. “And when I decided to sub myself in, I realized that we were just kind of stagnant offensively.”

“That’s what you call a good vet,” Collins added.

JHX trailed 35-27 in the third quarter when Taylor first checked in; the KU alumni then went on a 17-5 run. Taylor finished with nine points, three assists and three rebounds.

Also making an unexpected appearance for JHX on Monday night was David McCormack. Initially marketed as the star of this year’s team, McCormack was removed from the roster in the week leading up to TBT, then just as suddenly returned for Monday. His nine points and 10 rebounds were a welcome addition to the JHX frontcourt (as were, by the way, former Stanislaus State center Marcus Bell’s nine points in just seven minutes; the late addition has made quite a few positive contributions through two rounds).

Mayo led JHX with 14 points on Monday night, but shot just 3-for-10 from the field after going 4-for-12 in Saturday’s first-round win over OffDaHook. The KU alumni still haven’t gotten consistent guard play from him, Nick Timberlake (who struggled on Monday in limited action), Vick or anyone else, which they’ll need on Wednesday.

If JHX upsets Heartfire, earning its first-ever regional title, it will play the winner of the Wichita region on Monday at 8 p.m. The location of that game will be determined by who advances from the game between second-seeded Wichita State alumni team Aftershocks and Houston alumni team Forever Coogs.