La Familia comes up short in TBT semifinals, falls to Carmen's Crew 76-70
La Familia’s magical run in The Basketball Tournament came to an end in Philadelphia.
On Friday night at Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center, the Kentucky alums fell short against Carmen’s Crew (Ohio State alums) in the semifinals, losing 76-70 in the Elam Ending. The group of former Wildcats made a great comeback effort down the stretch after trailing for most of the game, but the Buckeyes had just enough juice to cross the finish line.
Four La Familia players finished in double-figures. Kerem Kanter led the way with 17 points and seven rebounds while Willie Cauley-Stein chipped in 14 points and nine rebounds. Andrew Harrison contributed 14 points, five rebounds, and four assists with Eric Bledsoe adding 11 points. The group of Wildcats shot 44.2 percent from the field, but a 5-19 clip from long range was too tough to overcome.
Not even a visit from Kentucky’s former head coach, John Calipari, could fuel La Familia to victory. Instead, Carmen’s Crew advances to Sunday’s championship to face Forever Coogs (Houston alums) with $1 million up for grabs.
After a couple of hot starts in the previous two games, this one started off more like the first two. La Familia came out slow from the jump as Carmen’s Crew took the early lead. A couple of threes from James Young kept the Kentucky alums in it early on but the Ohio State boys had plenty of counters from deep.
By the end of the first quarter, La Familia trailed 14-10 but was still well within striking distance. The second frame is where it started to get away from the Wildcats. Carmen’s Crew took a double-digit lead midway through the quarter and held a 40-27 lead at the halftime break.
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This one was far from over though. La Familia refused to go down quietly as the defense began to step it up — they just needed more from the offense. Carmen’s Crew still led 57-48 going into the fourth quarter, but the tides were slowly shifting in Kentucky’s favor.
La Familia was able to trim the Carmen’s Crew lead down to four with one minute left until the Elam Ending (which starts at the first dead ball under four minutes of the fourth quarter), the closest they’d been since the opening quarter. Going into the Elam Ending, Carmen’s Crew led 68-64, setting the target score at 76.
Bledsoe and Harrison got the scoring rolling in the Elam Ending, but a shot inside followed by a three-pointer from Carmen’s Crew made it 73-68. A bucket from Kanter then made it 73-70 in favor of Ohio State. Unfortunately, Jamel Morris hit a three from the top of the key to win it for Carmen’s Crew, sending them to Sunday’s championship.
This won’t be the end of the road for La Familia though. Don’t be shocked if we see another group of former Wildcats in the 2025 edition of TBT.
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