Boeheim’s Army’s alley-oop duo combines for 2 points in TBT Quarterfinal loss
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Tyson Walker’s jog became a walk as the basketball, thrown-in moments earlier by Cole Swider, rolled slowly by his feet. As Swider set a pick on Hall In point guard Al-Amir Dawes, Walker scooped the ball from the floor and ran across the half-court line.
Beyond the 3-point arc, Walker lofted a pass over the head of Hall In center Romaro Gill to Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu, who leaped at the rim to slam down a shuddering dunk.
The alley-oop, which came in the second quarter of Boeheim’s Army’s rout of Hall In Tuesday, was the first of three rim-quivering connections between Walker and Akobundu-Ehiogu in BA’s TBT-opening tilt.
Across Boeheim’s Army’s two-game sweep of the Seton Hall alumni, Walker posted a team-high 14 assists and scored 19 points, and Akobundu-Ehiogu dropped 31 points on 14 dunks, also posting 16 rebounds and four blocks. BA captain Buddy Boeheim even called the 6-foot-10 Akobundu-Ehiogu the tournament’s “most versatile player.”
But Boeheim’s Army’s pair of portal pickups, Walker and Akobundu-Ehiogu, were silent Sunday afternoon, combining for two points in its 70-66 quarterfinal loss to La Familia, Kentucky’s alumni team.
Kaodirchi Akobundu-Ehiogu gazes around in Boeheim’s Army’s win over Hall In Tuesday. After dominating Seton Hall’s alumni squad last week, Akobundu-Ehiogu was held to two points Sunday against La Familia. Brody Shuffler | Staff Photographer
The defeat sends Syracuse’s alumni squad home before the third round for the fifth time in its last seven tournaments.
A minute and a half into the first quarter, with Boeheim’s Army down 10-5, Walker and Akobundu-Ehiogu set up a familiar play. Akobundu-Ehiogu picked La Familia guard Darryl Morsell on the baseline, freeing Walker to dribble into open space and loft a pass to the rolling Akobundu-Ehiogu at the rim.
Waiting for the pass was 7-foot center Willie Cauley-Stein, who stretched out and swatted away Walker’s lob.
A minute later, Walker had the ball back in his hands. Boeheim’s Army trailed 13-5, but Walker looked poised to add to BA’s score after racing past La Familia point guard Andrew Harrison at the top of the key. Cauley-Stein again emerged in the paint, swatting away Walker’s close-range shot.
Halfway through the second quarter, after Boeheim’s Army allowed a 10-0 La Familia run and went down by double digits, Walker and Akobundu-Ehiogu set up again. Walker drove into the left slot while Akobundu-Ehiogu rolled into the paint to leap at the rim. Rejected, again, by Cauley-Stein.
The two connected for their only points seconds later, after a wide-open Walker flipped the ball to Akobundu-Ehiogu alone under the rim for an uncontested two-hand dunk. But unlike BA’s previous games, there were no spectacular, soaring, alley-oop slams Sunday.
Walker began to shoot from beyond the arc, where Cauley-Stein couldn’t reach him. His first 3-point try, an open look from the left wing late in the first quarter, struck the rim. His second attempt, with just over five minutes left in the first half, struck iron again. Less than a minute into the third quarter, from the top of the key, he hit the rim for the third straight time.
About a minute later, Akobundu-Ehiogu attempted just his third non-dunk of the tournament, releasing a jumper from the paint. But hassled by Cauley-Stein, his shot bounced off the backboard.
Walker still flashed his playmaking, picking up five assists, but he finished 0-for-7 from the field and 0-for-4 from deep. He turned the ball over three times, once in the third quarter on a pass through the paint only for that to be swatted away, too.
Akobundu-Ehiogu only got two shots off against Cauley-Stein, the sixth overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. The Nigerian center’s performance also included a tournament-low four rebounds and zero blocks.
BA first recruited portal players to its roster in 2021, the summer Keifer Sykes, a portal pickup, hit the game-winning 3 in the TBT Championship. Boeheim’s Army went back to the portal this year and snagged Akobundu-Ehiogu, Walker, JaCorey Williams and Nichols, who almost single-handedly eliminated BA from last summer’s tournament.
But they fell short Sunday, proving the 2021 magic hasn’t come back.
