JHX Hoops Loses Heartbreaker to Team Heartfire in The Basketball Tournament

The Kansas basketball alumni team JHX Hoops lost a nailbiter to Team Heartfire on Wednesday night, ending their run in this year’s The Basketball Tournament (TBT).

Coming off of a thrilling win against the K-State alumni TBT team Purple Reign on Monday, JHX was hoping to build on that victory in the Round of 16 in front of a KU-friendly crow inside Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, but a slow start in the first quarter did them no favors.

JHX had several careless turnovers and missed opportunities close to the basket that put them in a hole early before rallying back to cut the lead to 13-11 at the end of the first quarter.

Things didn’t get much better on the turnover front in the second quarter as KU had several unforced turnovers which led to easy fast break points for Heartfire. KU also struggled on the offensive end, especially former guard Zeke Mayo who went 1-of-5 from the field and 0-for-3 from three-point range.

However, former NCAA champion David McCormack refused to let the Jayhawks go away.

Despite being down as many as nine points, KU fought back behind a tenacious effort from McCormack who scored 9 of his 11 points in the second quarter. He was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field and 3-for-6 from the free throw line to go along with three rebounds heading into halftime.

Eric Griffin was the catalyst for Heartfire in the first half, scoring 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field.

The second half was a different story for JHX as the team came out firing.

Billy Preston was fouled on a made jumper and then swished a free throw to put the team within one. The Jayhawks then took a one-point lead 36-35 on the next offensive possession following a much-needed three-pointer from Mayo.

Mayo really turned it on offensively in the third quarter, scoring seven of JHX’s 26 points to give the team a 55-51 lead at the end of the third, but not before tensions started to flare after a technical foul was given to JHX’s Marcus Bell who was then ejected from the game.