Jul. 8—Seemingly out of it halfway through the second quarter, Southern West Virginia Elite made an improbable 56-point comeback on Best Virginia to take a four-point lead with four minutes to go.
No, that didn’t really happen.
Best Virginia, the West Virginia basketball alumni team getting ready to play in The Basketball Tournament, was in control of Wednesday’s exhibition from the early moments of the second quarter. It became a runaway in the second half, but with four minutes to go the clock was stopped for the attraction exclusive to TBT.
The Elam Ending.
All TBT games use the format, in which the clock is stopped at the first dead ball after the four-minute mark of the fourth quarter. A target score is established by adding eight to the leading team’s total, and the first team to that point wins the game.
On this night, Best Virginia coach James Long threw in a wrinkle. He changed the score — an astronomical 115-63 lead for his team — and put the Elite ahead by four at 119-115, meaning the first team to 127 would win. Suddenly, a laugher took on a bit more seriousness.
The Elite made it even more interesting by scoring the first three points to get within five of a victory. But Best Virginia didn’t allow them another point and won the game 127-122 at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
The crowd of about 1,000 was entertained by a mix of dunks and long range 3-pointers. But the game took a turn with Long’s twist to the Elam Ending, forcing his team to face a pressure situation with the start of the TBT 10 days away.
“You see the magnitude of every possession with the Elam Ending,” said Long, a WVU alumnus and the head coach at WVU Tech. “We played great defense on the first possession and they still hit a 3. You’ve just got to focus on getting a basket on offense. It’s true possession-to-possession.
“I love the Elam Ending. It makes the end of every game fun. No matter how much you’re winning (by), it can whittle down. It’s a good concept. I really like it. It’s a lot of fun.”
It definitely added a fun element to Wednesday’s game.
The Elite, made up of several southern West Virginia high school alumni who played collegiately — along with former Mountaineer Devin Ebanks — made it a more pressing situation for Best Virginia when Dexter Moore hit a 3-pointer that beat the shot clock to put his team ahead 122-115.
But Best Virginia stepped up its defense even more the rest of the way, and the offense put together a 12-0 run to end it. Kevin Jones dunked to make it 125-122, then Nathan Adrian dunked on a putback of a Jones miss for the final points.
“It was different. We’re still kind of learning the rules as we go,” Best Virginia’s Alex Ruoff said of the Elam Ending. “We were a little confused at the end of this exhibition. But, no, it’s nice. You try to speed it up and take away those (late) fouls. It will be fine, but we’ve got to make sure we know what’s going on.”
The Elite was coached by George Wilmore, one of Long’s assistants at Tech.
“It was a great atmosphere, a great time to put those guys in a situation they’re going to be in for the TBT tournament,” Wilmore said. “That was great for us to see and it was great for them to make some adjustments. I’m glad I was able to help for sure.”
Before that, Best Virginia had it way most of the night. They led 62-34 at halftime, then an 18-3 run — interrupted by a 3-pointer from Woodrow Wilson High School and Alice Lloyd College Hall of Famer Will Dillard — put them ahead 82-42 halfway through the third quarter.
Sagaba Konate led Best Virginia with 20 points, mostly on dunks. Adrian followed with 19 and John Flowers 14. Logan Routt had 12, Chase Harler and Tarik Phillip each had 11 and Jones and Teyvon Myers both finished with 10.
Ebanks led the Elite with a game-high 26 points. Moore added 14 and WVU Tech senior Tamon Scruggs had 13.
Best Virginia will play another exhibition Friday in Wheeling. The Basketball Tournament will start July 17, with Best Virginia and the Herd That Marshall alumni team playing at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
“It was fun,” Long said. “It was everyone’s first time playing together, both sides, and there were fans in the stands. There was some good things to take from it. Obviously it’s not perfect. It’s not going to be perfect in the TBT. So you’ve just got to find a way to get better from it.”
Email: gfauber@register-herald.com and follow on Twitter @GaryFauber