Defending TBT champions Boeheim’s Army took an early punch in the mouth as India Rising took an early 5-0 lead to start the match. But as former NBA player and head coach Rudy Tomjanovich once said, “Don’t underestimate the heart of a champion.”
After the media timeout, Army settled down and began playing true to championship form. As the match continued, Boeheim’s army asserted its dominance while India Rising’s inexperience began to show in their mistakes. Army forced Rising into turnovers and undisciplined shooting. Rising committed 15 turnovers and was held to 34 percent from the field all game, but the large crowd of Syracuse Orange fans enjoyed seeing some of their favorites back in action.
Other key stats throughout the game consisted of points off turnovers (19 to Rising’s 5), bench points (51 to Rising’s 32), points in the paint (44 to Rising’s 16) and fast break points (31 to Rising’s 0).
Former Syracuse forward Jimmy Boeheim admitted Boeheim’s Army didn’t have many reference points as they prepared for Friday’s game against India Rising.
“We didn’t have too much of a scouting report on them, we just knew we had to handle business, play hard, play together,” Boeheim said.
The leading scorers for both teams were Mississippi State alum Dee Bost who led all scorers with 18 points and University of Calgary alum Robbie Sihota who led India Rising with 12 points in a losing effort. Bost hit the closing slingshot and put in some extra money to do it while wearing Pumas. Andrew White had 16 points and 8 rebounds. Jimmy Boeheim scored 8 points on 3-6 shooting while grabbing 4 rebounds in 16 minutes of action, while his former Cornell teammate Matt Morgan had 16 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists.
The defending champions will face The Nerd Team, a roster made up of players from some of the top academic institutions across the country, including Prentiss Hubb of Notre Dame. One area of concern is the health of DJ Kennedy who left yesterday’s game in the first half.
The game tips off at 2 p.m. at SRC Arena at Onondaga Community College and is available on ESPN. The winner of that game will face the Friday Beers- Blue Collar U winner on Monday night.
