The Denton Record-Chronicle is offering North Texas fans a chance to read all of our content for $1 per month leading up to football season. Sign up here: dentonrc.com/subscribe-now/sports-offer/ We Are Bleed Green was right where they wanted to be late in their game against Challenge ALS in the second round of The Basketball Tournament on Sunday.
The North Texas alumni team had a nine-point lead and seemingly all the momentum in the 64-team, $1 million, winner-takes-all event. The beauty of TBT is that wild swings are the norm. One of them ended We Are Bleed Green’s 2024 TBT run in a 66-63 loss at the Fertitta Center in Houston.
The UNT alumni team went cold offensively after going up 57-48 late in the second half and couldn’t recover in a matchup of teams with TBT finals appearances in their history. We Are Bleed Green fell in the finals last year. Challenge ALS played in the title game in 2017.
Sunday’s game went down to the wire in the Elam Ending. The unique format for the tournament calls for the game clock to be stopped at the first dead ball under the 4-minute mark. Eight points are added to the score of the team in the lead to establish a target score.
The first team to reach that total wins. We Are Bleed Green entered the Elam Ending with a 57-55 lead. Both teams were a shot away from reaching the target score of 65 after Jordan Stevens hit a 3 to pull the UNT alumni team within 64-63.
Luis Rodriguez grabbed an offensive rebound and hit a jumper on the ensuing.