Cashmere Wright and the Nasty Nati squad were looking to keep the ball rolling tonight as they took on Friday Beers at UD Arena in the TBT Quarterfinals after dominating the Xavier Regional last week. Nasty Nati were led by Jarron Cumberland (25.7 points) and Jacob Evans (23 points per game) over the first three games, as the backcourt continued to show why they are arguably the best backcourt within the TBT Tournament.
The Nasty Nati squad would be back at full strength however, as Tre Scott and Keith Williams were making their TBT debuts after missing the whole Xavier regional. Scott is recently coming off a stint in the NBA Summer League, where he played with the Charolette Hornets. Williams, on the other hand recently spent time with the 905 Raptors (Toronto G-League).
Nasty Nati has dominated above the rim throughout this tournament run, but adding guys like Tre Scott and Keith Williams to pair alongside of an emerging Marquez Letcher-Ellis, and Mamoudou Diarra is crucial for this teams TBT run, as Scott should look to make an immediate impact early.
Friday Beers would take an early 11-5 lead, after an early seven point run in the opening minutes. Nasty Nati would look to find ways to attack early but saw a huge momentum changing three-point opportunity taken away after Gabe York stepped in and drew a charge on Jarron Cumberland in the opening minutes. Nasty Nati, would struggle to get some momentum going from there as they were held scoreless for nearly 4 minutes in the early minutes of this game.
Nasty Nati would struggle to find a way to contain Julian Gamble down low as he had eight of Friday Beers first 13 points. However, Friday Beers was doing a great job at eliminating Jacob Evans and Jarron Cumberland early, as they would combine for just two points on 1-of-5 shooting in the first quarter. Nasty Nati was struggling to get anything going on the offensive end early shooting just 29% from the field in the first quarter, while Friday Beers shot 56%.
Friday Beers was firing on all cylinders tonight as the just couldn’t seem to miss as they were up 33-14 after an Aubrey Dawkins made three. However, Nasty Nati would respond with a huge seven point run that would wake the fans up at UD Arena after Troy Caupain went up top to Tre Scott for the easy slam. Just like that the #Bearcatnation has instantly become a factor for Nasty Nati as they would cut Friday Beers to single digit’s late in the first half following huge minutes from Keith Williams and Tre Scott off the bench.
Nasty Nati would commit a costly turnover right before the break, with the opportunity to make this a four-point game, but Dee Bost knocked down a three to make this a 42-32 game at the half. Nasty Nati would struggle to get going offensively shooting just 1-of-10 from behind the arch, while Friday Beers shot at a 47% clip from behind the arch. Friday Beers was doing a great job at eliminating Jacob Evans, who was averaging 23 points per game throughout the Xavier Regional, holding him to just four points in the first half. Nasty Nati knew they had to find a way to get Evans going here in the second half as they looked to make a second half comeback.
Nasty Nati would cut Friday Beers lead to four after Jarron Cumberland stood tall and took a huge charge sparking an 8-0 run over the last 2 minutes of the third quarter where Nasty Nati trailed 50-48. Friday Beers would go silent in that time span as Nasty Nati was in reach of their first lead since early in the first quarter. A huge opportunity for Nasty Nati to make some noise down the stretch. However, Friday Beers would set the tone early in the 4th quarter with an early 6-0 run to take a 58-50 lead following an Aubrey Dawkins made three. However, Nasty Nati would lock in get stops and make this a 64-59 game heading to the Elam Ending after a Scott five point-run. However, Friday Beers would prevail and hold on and defeat Nasty Nati 72-66, ending the Bearcats alumni TBT Tournament run.
The Bearcats finished just 2-of-15 from behind the arch in their loss this evening, while Friday Beers shot 11-of-30 from deep. An element that was Nasty Nati’s firepower throughout the Xavier regional, but didn’t seem to fall tonight. “They did a really great job defending us. They scouted us really well,” said Kevin Johnson “They did a great job defending Jacob Evans and Jarron Cumberland off the curls, really took the three away. We lost our identity a little bit, the whole tournament we have been running off our defense. Today we let that get affected which allowed them to run their offense and get some easy buckets.”
Tre Scott finished with a game high 21 points on 10-of-14 shooting in his Nasty Nati debut and played a dominant role tonight for Nasty Nati after missing the Xavier Regional. “Hats off to my teammates for allowing me to be myself. Being three games in, I wanted to be aggressive and do whatever I could to help us win,” said Tre Scott. “21 points on 10-of-14 shooting, that’s efficient, I can’t be mad at that.”
The Nasty Nati historical TBT Tournament run falls just short of the ultimate 1,000,000-dollar prize, but the Bearcats alumni made history along the way. They not only picked up their first ever TBT victory, but they also went on and picked up two more along the way making it to the semifinals in just their second year as a team. However, the Nasty Nati team made tremendous growth from year one to year two under Kevin Johnson and will look to come back next year and take home the one-million-dollar prize.
