By Derek DeBurger

The Ville, Louisville’s alumni TBT team, has come up victorious over Boson vs Cancer.

Shaking off the rust

The new team full of familiar faces got off to a slow start.

With Luke Hancock at the helm, The Ville struggled mightily to see the ball find the bottom of the basket. The first field goal didn’t come until 5:35 left in the first quarter when David Johnson hit a three-pointer to cut Louisville’s early deficit to 6-5.

Just 30 seconds later Montrezl Harrell hit a three of his own to put The Ville up by two.

From there the offense for both side woke up just a bit, going back and forth until Johnson tied the game with a layup at 14-14.

The final play of the quarter saw an out of bound play going to Quinn Slazinski in the corner for a triple.

The Ville led 20-16.

The tit-for-tat of the game continued into the second quarter, with Boston quickly tying up the game at 20 apiece.

But The Ville’s defense clamped down, finally closing out on perimeter shooters to shut down the Boston offense.

The Ville used their increased defensive intensity to go on a 17-3 run, with the offense being an equal opportunity scoring machine.

The Ville ended halftime up 39-31.

It wins championships

The defense from the second quarter only improved in the second half, with Harrell coming alive on the other end of the floor.

As The Ville smothered Boston vs Cancer, Harrell dominated down low and scored nine points in the third quarter alone.

Former Louisville commit Jay Scrubb and Chris Jones each had nice quarters, as well, as the Ville lead ballooned as high as 26 points.

However, the huge lead bred cockiness as Boston started to claw back just enough to put doubt in the minds of some. A 10-0 run between the third and fourth cut the lead to just 16.

But The Ville needed only to get their act together as Russ Smith hit two long jumpers to take momentum back, and another dunk from Harrell put the lead back at 25.

Under four minutes and up 14 points, Hancock called a timeout to set in stone the target score for the Elam ending at 91 points.

But during the timeout Smith was called for a technical foul, and Boston vs Cancer began the period shooting a free throw and with possession of the ball.

The technical would soon become moot as Harrell was fouled on a layup attempt, with the foul later being upgraded to a flagrant 1 for excessive force.

That put the score at 86-70 and just five points away from a victory.

Harrell would get another trip to the free throw line, sinking both attempts. And a fastbreak three from Jones would end the game.

The Ville won 91-71.

Not the same old same old

With much of the same core from the first two TBT teams The Ville has put together previously, and even Mark Lieberman, the head coach of the first TBT team, was on the sidelines as an assistant under Hancock.

A lack of an offensive gameplan and lapses on defense seemed glaring early on, but once those corrections were made by the coaching staff there was clearly a different air about this year’s squad.

Harrell, who was coming off of an ACL injury, was visibly out of shape a year ago. This year he is not only in shape but looked dominant. He led all scorers with 25 points, and lived at the free throw line going 10-for-15 at the stripe. He also added 12 rebounds and two assists while only being called for one foul.

Johnson, Scrubb and Jones also looked like a lethal backcourt, scoring 13, 12 and 12 points, respectively.

After disappointment to end the first two runs, this team looks poised for success.

The Ville will face the winner of Sideline Cancer vs Madd Katts.

Photo Courtesy // Jared Anderson, Louisville Report