Assembly Ball Beats Men of Mackey 68-55 in The Basketball Tournament

A balanced scoring effort from Assembly Ball lifted the Indiana basketball alumni-based team past Men of Mackey, Purdue's alumni team, on Sunday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse in The Basketball Tournament.

Yogi Ferrell prepares to shoot a free throw during Assembly Ball's win over Men of Mackey in The Basketball Tournament at Hinkle Fieldhouse. / The Basketball Tournament

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Even in The Basketball Tournament, survive and advance is the name of the game.

It wasn’t always pretty, but No. 1 seed Assembly Ball did enough to secure a 68-55 win over No. 4 seed Men of Mackey on Friday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Kristian Doolittle led a balanced Assembly Ball scoring effort with 14 points, followed by Yogi Ferrell with 13, Keith Hornsby with 12 and Julian Gamble with 11. Defensively, Assembly Ball limited its opponent to 24 fewer points than Friday’s game.

With this win, Assembly Ball advances to the TBT Round of 16, with a $1 million winner-take-all prize at stake. The Indiana alumni-based team will play Tuesday against No. 6 seed Eberlein Drive at 7 p.m. ET at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The game can be seen on FS1.

"This team is as talented as any team we've coached in the TBT," Assembly Ball head coach Adam Ross, Will Sheehey's high school coach, said. "We've had some great runs in the TBT, and there's no reason why this team, if we continue to stack like that, there's no reason we can't end up in Philadelphia playing in the Final Four."

Yogi Ferrell was the hero in Friday’s win, dropping 27 points, and on Sunday he resumed where he left off, knocking down a stepback 3-pointer on his first attempt. But overall, both teams got off to a slow start shooting the ball. As Assembly Ball led 15-11 after the first quarter, the teams shot a combined 10-for-35 from the field, 1-for-18 from 3-point range and 5-for-10 from the free throw line. 

Though Assembly Ball’s shooting woes continued into the second quarter, starting 11-for-28 from the field, it got a bit of good luck just before the halftime buzzer. Keith Hornsby’s 3-pointer bounced high off the back rim but fell through the net with eight seconds left to give Assembly Ball a 34-23 lead at halftime. Ferrell carried the scoring load on Friday, but it was more balanced on Sunday with six players between four and eight points at halftime.

"I'm just trying to get in the paint and create," Ferrell said Sunday night. "That's the biggest thing. I know guys are going to be in the right spots, but I gotta get in the lane and create. We've got a great group of guys that love to share the ball, and they feel confident in themselves. So it's actually been pretty easy to create chemistry with these guys."

"It's been fun, talking with Jordy and C Wat just about memories and stuff," Ferrell said. "Even putting on the candy stripes, man, I got chills from that first game. If I could do it all over again I would."

In the second half, Keith Hornsby caught fire to help Assembly Ball extend its lead. The former UNC Asheville and LSU guard missed all five of his shot attempts on Friday, but he scored five quick points to begin the third quarter and finished with 12.

After recording a double-double in Friday’s win, Juwan Morgan played just 10 minutes in Sunday’s game due to an injury that caused him to attempt two free throws left-handed before exiting the game.

"It looks like a bruise on his triceps, his shooting arm, his right arm," Ross said. "... Coming out of the half, he said it felt a lot better and he wanted to give it a shot. One of the IU doctors is here and took a look at it and said it's muscle bruise of some sort and he's fine to play. He was limited, so I felt like we have a lot of good players and we're lucky in that way. I just felt like other guys could serve us better than a one-armed Juwan Morgan."

Troy Williams didn’t play Friday, and he wasn’t in uniform for Sunday’s game. Devonte Green didn’t play either, and Noah Vonleh wasn’t in attendance for a second straight game. 

But Assembly Ball got some welcomed reinforcements Sunday night. Miller Kopp was in attendance on Sunday after missing Friday’s game. Kopp wrapped up NBA Summer League action with the Oklahoma City Thunder in Las Vegas on Saturday, and he’ll be with Assembly Ball for the rest of the tournament. On Sunday, he scored seven points in eight minutes. 

Kopp made a transition layup to give Assembly Ball a 46-29 lead with 3:41 left in the third quarter, and aside from a few brief runs, it was smooth sailing from then on. Assembly Ball’s lead never got below eight points in the final 12-plus minutes, and Ferrell hit a cutting Kopp with a slick pass for a layup just before the third quarter buzzer.

Jordan Hulls missed Friday’s game because he was being inducted into the Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame, but Assembly Ball fans were excited to see him on Sunday wearing the candy stripes.

"We actually didn't get on the court together," Ferrell said postgame with a laugh.

"My bad," Ross said.

"But yeah, I got Jordy a lot of threes in those corners, man," Ferrell said. "So maybe I can get him one coming next game."

In the fourth quarter, Ferrell sank a dagger of a 3-point shot while falling to the ground with 4:50 left in the game. That ignited a “Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, Hoosiers,” chant and put the game away for good. Julian Gamble satisfied the 68-point Elam Ending with a free throw, and Assembly Ball was officially heading the next round.

YOGI FROM DEEP!

He makes the SICK crossover into the stepback and buries the 3

We're into Elam Ending Time, first to 68 wins on FS1 pic.twitter.com/zmG06asF7V

— TBT (@thetournament) July 22, 2024

Assembly Ball had some notable supporters in attendance on Sunday night, including Trayce Jackson-Davis, Trey Galloway, Luke Goode, Gabe Cupps, Mackenzie Holmes, Sydney Parrish, Michael Lewis and Kenya Hunter. They were part of the pro-Assembly Ball crowd that filled up a few thousands seats in Butler University’s home arena.

Just about everyone on Men of Mackey struggled shooting the ball, going 22-for-73 from the field, just 30.1%. David Jenkins Jr. led the team with 13 points, but he shot just 5-for-12 from the field. Ian Miller went 3-for-14 and Sasha Stefanovic went 3-for-13. As a team, they made just 9-of-35 3-point attempts, or 25.7%.

"We were talking a lot more tonight," Ferrell said. "Great job from our bigs, telling us what to do, what coverages they want to do. They were great defensively, active hands, and we all listened to our bigs. We bought in defensively. I'm down there talking, telling guys where to go and we try to make it as hard as possible in the half court."

It doesn’t count toward the official Indiana-Purdue series record, but that’s as close as it gets to the in-state rivalry in July. And on Sunday, the former Hoosiers – with help from others – came out on top.

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