The Basketball Tournament: Red Scare faces bigger challenge in second round
Jul. 25—Darrell Davis is the Roosevelt Chapman of the Red Scare.
No one has scored more points for the Dayton Flyers alumni team in The Basketball Tournament than Davis. He added to his career total — 126 points in nine games — with a team-high 15 points Sunday in a 75-70 first-round victory against CitiTeam at UD Arena.
Davis is the only player who has played for the Red Scare every year since 2019 when former UD walk-ons Joey Gruden and Jeremiah Bonsu formed the team.
"I don't think I want to miss one until I can't move anymore," Davis said.
Devin Oliver played for the Red Scare the last three years and scored 98 points in eight games. He had a good excuse for not playing this year. He got married Sunday.
Former Ohio State center Trevor Thompson has 66 points in three tournaments. Vee Sanford has 59 points in two tournaments. Trey Landers has 57 points in three tournaments, and Ryan Mikesell has 56 in three.
Chapman scored 2,233 points in his Dayton career. No other Flyer has more than 2,000 points. Davis, with 1,008 points, is one of 50 players with more than 1,000 points. He reached the milestone in his final game in 2018.
Davis was the only member of the Red Scare to make multiple 3-pointers Sunday. He made 2 of 5 3s. The rest of the team made 4 of 25.
The Red Scare likely will have to shoot better in the second to have a chance against the No. 2 seed Golden Eagles, a Marquette alumni team. They will play at 9 p.m. Tuesday at UD Arena.
The other second-round game in the Dayton Region starts at 7 p.m. No. 1 seed The Money Team plays the Purdue alumni team, No. 4 Men of Mackey at 7 p.m.
Former Dayton stars Obi Toppin and Jalen Crutcher plan to watch the game again from behind the Red Scare bench. Toppin's dad, Obadiah Toppin, also joined them Sunday.
"I need 13,000 Flyer fans to come to UD Arena (tomorrow) night at 9 p.m.," Toppin wrote Monday on Twitter. "Support (the Red Scare)."
Both games Tuesday will air on ESPN2 as will the Dayton Region championship at 8 p.m. Wednesday.
The home rims did not do the Red Scare any favors in the first round even though it had more chances to practice at UD Arena than the other teams. It hopes for a different story in the second round.
"Everybody had not played in so long," Davis said. "I'm glad we got out of this game. We know the next game's going to be a war. We fought through it. Winning masks everything."
The Golden Eagles made 8 of 24 3-pointers (33.3%) in a 77-72 victory against the Ohio Bobcats alumni team, Ohio 1804.
Two years ago, the Golden Eagles beat the Red Scare 79-70 in the TBT semifinals en route to winning the championship and the $1 million prize at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. That was a scaled-down tournament played in a quarantined environment.
The Golden Eagles have nearly the same roster this year as they did in 2020. Jamil Wilson scored 23 points against the Red Scare two years ago and had 14 points in the first round Sunday. Darius Johnson-Odom had a team-high 19 points Sunday and scored 14 against the Red Scare in 2020. The 40-year-old Travis Diener, a teammate of Dwayne Wade almost 20 years ago at Marquette, scored three points against the Red Scare in Columbus and had three points Sunday.
Beating one of the most successful TBT teams in history will be a tall challenge for the Dayton alums.
"I think we've just got to clean some things up," Red Scare guard Scoochie Smith said. "I think sometimes on defense we let guys go one on one too much. We've got to stay closed in and cohesive. I think offensively we were a little timid and not really sure if we should shoot off or if we should pass, and I think those will be easy fixes when we watch film."
The Red Scare and Golden Eagles both used 10 players in their first games. No one played more than 28 minutes for the Golden Eagles. Everyone played between 10 and 25 minutes for the Red Scare with Davis, Smith, Jordan Sibert — three members of the 2015 Dayton team that won two NCAA tournament games — and Josh Cunningham and Ryan Mikesell starting the game.
"My hardest job is subbing," Red Scare coach Joey Gruden said. "We've got 10 really good players. It's hard. But everyone scored. Everyone contributed. I think that's our biggest advantage this year. We've got 10 guys who want to win it all. We've got to win like six games in (10) days, so we've got to have good legs through the whole tournament. They're already in shape, but just having five subs ready to go is huge."
