Best Virginia blasts Brotherly Love in The Basketball Tournament opening-round game
By Joseph Smith
For Wesley Harris and Esa Ahmad, Saturday afternoon's opening round matchup in the 2024 edition of The Basketball Tournament (TBT) must have felt like a redemption of sorts.
The last time the pair donned the Mountaineer gold-and-blue, they found themselves unceremoniously dismissed from the program. Likely, many thought it would be the last they'd hear of the troubled pair of athletes as West Virginia fans.
However, they made peace with their tumultuous departure from the university to once again represent The Mountain State and WVU fandom this summer as they joined Mountaineer alumni program Best Virginia to compete in the TBT.
They would turn out to be instrumental in the team's opening-round success as they bounced their opponent Brotherly Love from the bracket in a 94-69 thumping.
Harris would pace his team with a 15-point effort while Ahmad added 12 points and snatched seven rebounds in their comeback performance.
The matchup itself was never particularly close, with Best Virginia jumping on an 11-0 run in the first 2:05 of the game, and never looking back. They would lead 35-13 at the end of the first quarter and 50-33 at the halftime break.
“In the first quarter we wanted to throw the first punch defensively," Best Virginia head coach and general manager Chase Harler said. "We play with effort.”
The Best Virginia were aided by a hot scoring effort from the entire team -- they drained 14 three-point buckets and shot 48% from the field as a unit, with all ten players tallying five or more points in the win.
Best Virginia advances to the Round of 32 where they'll play at Peterson Events Center in Pittsburgh on Monday, July 22nd. They'll square off with the winner of Pitt alumni squad Zoo Crew and Philadelphia-based Million $ Worth of Game.