The Basketball Tournament

WICHITA — A hotly contested quarterfinal match in The Basketball Tournament on Monday night at Charles Koch Arena was marred by a scuffle under the basket with two minutes and 43 seconds left in the first half, which left both the Kansas and Wichita State alumni teams with just six players.

With the AfterShocks ahead 23-22, Rashard Kelly and JHX Hoops’ Mario Chalmers got into a battle for an offensive rebound — ultimately grabbed by Andrew Orr — that resulted in Kelly pushing Chalmers to the ground, setting off a skirmish between the two teams.

After a protracted stoppage, TBT officials ejected not just Chalmers and Kelly but also every player who came off the bench to enter the fray — leaving each team with just one substitute for the rest of the game. In all, four Jayhawks and five Shockers got kicked out.

“I like our six,” JHX Hoops coach Sherron Collins told Kansas Nation. “Unfortunate that happened, but I think that gave us the upper hand. I think our six was better than their six.”

When all that was sorted, more than an entire half of basketball remained to be played. It was largely a war of attrition between the two teams until Frank Mason III knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the Elam Ending on consecutive JHX possessions to win the game, 64-59.

“I saw a guy come up and set a screen,” Mason said in a video obtained by Kansas Nation. “The secondary defender kind of stepped back, and I just pulled it because I hit one right before that.”

The KU alumni team will advance to Lexington, Kentucky, to face Kentucky alumni team La Familia at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

“Just to get to that fourth and fifth game is a really exciting feeling,” Mason said, “and we’re just looking forward to taking care of business in Lexington.”

Mason finished with 13 points on what was largely a difficult shooting night prior to his late heroics. Jacob Hanna scored 15, but Zeke Mayo led the way for JHX with 25 points.

Marcus Santos-Silva had a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double for the defending champion AfterShocks.

For the first time in TBT, JHX Hoops started strong. A pair of baseline jumpers by Jamari Traylor allowed the KU alumni to take an early 8-2 lead.

The AfterShocks pulled ahead at 11-10 on a putback by Morris Udeze before JHX surged back in front in what quickly became a back-and-forth contest, with the former Jayhawks leading by a point, 16-15, at the end of the first quarter when Mason’s step-back 3 went offline.

The game devolved into a defensive battle early in the second quarter. Mayo made a 3-pointer from the edge of the Shocker logo to put JHX ahead 20-19, but then Hanna, a significant factor early on for the KU alumni, got into foul trouble midway through the quarter, and a series of offensive rebounds for the AfterShocks prevented JHX from closing out possessions.

Then came the fracas.

“I think they got too personal with each other, and then it escalated,” Collins said. “But again, TBT handled their job. They ejected a couple of our guys, ejected a couple of their guys, so they acted the right way that was fair, and yeah, we just had to play the hand we was dealt and we came out on top.”

A transition layup by Santos-Silva proved to be the most interesting element of the post-brawl second quarter, and the KU alumni entered the break down 27-25.

Mason was limited to 1-for-10 shooting in the first half while the rest of the former Jayhawks went 10-for-18.

With the game tied at 31 early in the second half, the AfterShocks’ high-scoring guard Marcus Keene, who had largely been kept in check, made a layup, then in the wake of a miss by Mason immediately drained a deep 3 to set the crowd at Charles Koch Arena aflame.

Soon afterward, another instance of pushing and shoving between the teams resulted in technical fouls on Billy Preston and Trey Wade.

The Wichita State alumni led by six points before another deep 3 by Mayo. He missed a potential tying attempt, but added a contested layup. Hanna tied the game with two minutes left in the third quarter, and Corey Washington and Mason immediately traded 3s.

Hanna played a key role in the final moments, making two free throws before snagging a loose ball to draw a foul with 0.4 seconds remaining and draining two more to put the KU alumni ahead 48-44.

Conner Frankamp opened the fourth quarter with an early 3-pointer for the AfterShocks. They retook the lead with seven minutes remaining on a layup by Santos-Silva, only to lose it to Mayo a moment later.

JHX ultimately entered the Elam Ending ahead 56-55 with a target score of 64. Mayo made an early pull-up jumper, but Hanna fouled Keene on a 3-point attempt. He made two of three.

After a long series of empty possessions, an offensive rebound by Hanna and a timeout led to a left-wing 3-pointer by Mason to make it 61-57. Santos-Silva scored once more before Mason’s winner.