Jimmer-sanity came to an abrupt end on Thursday evening. The former BYU star who was best known for launching deep 3-pointers one after another in college went down swinging, but his team, Team Fredette, was ousted in The Basketball Tournament semifinals by Eberlein Drive 80-76.
Fredette did his best to give his squad a shot at the $2 million winner-take-all prize for the champion, scoring 24 points and knocking down four of his five shots from beyond the arc, but it wasn't quite enough. Nonetheless, his shooting was the highlight of the night.
Eberlein Drive contained Fredette as best as they could by throwing the kitchen sink at him. Its coach, Jerome Randle, said afterward that when Fredette got hot, they started throwing four guys at him.
"When you're guarding a guy like Jimmer" Eberlein Drive's Jerome Randle said, "You can't beat him with one person. We threw four guys at him -- even put some bigs on him -- but he's a tough matchup … We buckled down."
The semifinal loss for Team Fredette sets up a title game showdown between Eberlein Drive and Overseas Elite, the latter of which has a star shooter of its own in former Arizona point guard Kyle Fogg, who amassed 38 points in a win over the Golden Eagles in the semifinals. He could be in line to earn a third consecutive TBT MVP award if he continues his outburst in the event Friday.
Overseas Elite has won three of the four TBT crowns, and can make it four of five on Friday night when they face Eberlein Drive at 9 p.m. for the championship.
The Basketball Tournament Championship
- Who: No. 1 Overseas Elite vs. No. 7 Eberlin Drive
- When: Friday, 9 p.m. ET
- Where: The Fieldhouse at Morgan State University in Baltimore
- Prize money: $2 million to winning team
- TV: ESPN
- Streaming: WatchESPN