La Familia basketball schedule, Kentucky TBT tournament scores today
TBT 2025: La Familia coach Sean Woods talks about win over War Ready
La Familia head coach Sean Woods is joined by players Archie Goodwin and Aaron Harrison as they talk about TBT second-round win over War Ready.
- La Familia will face Eberlein Drive on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in TBT Lexington Regional championship game.
- Archie Goodwin led the Kentucky TBT in scoring Sunday in its win over Auburn TBT team, War Ready.
LEXINGTON — Travis McConico waved off his War Ready teammates as he dribbled near the 3-point line. With Willie Cauley-Stein guarding him on the perimeter, McConico wanted to go it alone against the 7-footer.
He rose. Fired.
And hit nothing.
The ball sailed out of bounds.
With McConico trudging back up the court, Cauley-Stein looked toward his foe and scrunched his face, perplexed by his opponent’s brash decision.
McConico’s air ball occurred barely two minutes into The Basketball Tournament round of 32 matchup Sunday at Memorial Coliseum.
Stream La Familia vs. Eberlein Drive on Fubo TV | free trial
But it was a sign of things to come between La Familia and War Ready, which became increasingly chippy as the game progressed.
In a contest featuring seven technical fouls, numerous collisions and hard feelings galore, La Familia outlasted War Ready, earning an 80-76 victory to clinch a spot in Tuesday’s Lexington Regional championship game.
“It was an ugly game, and we need those tests, because at some point, we have to be able to show, like, ‘OK, we can win easy games. We can (win) gritty games. We can (win) shootouts,'” La Familia guard Archie Goodwin said.
“We have to be able to show it all. And we did that tonight.”
Sunday was akin to an SEC tilt between two high-level teams.
And in a sense, it was an SEC game: La Familia is a Kentucky basketball alumni team, while War Ready is a crew of Auburn alums.
The ex-Wildcats were better Sunday. But the former Tigers made them work to advance. At one point in the second quarter, La Familia led by 14. But War Ready continued to chip away at the advantage, eventually knotting the game at 76 during the Elam Ending.
La Familia regrouped, however, scoring the game’s final four points — highlighted by Goodwin’s walk-off basket, banking it in off the glass on a fast break started by Kahlil Whitney‘s steal.
It was Goodwin’s second straight stellar outing. After scoring a game-high 19 points — to go along with seven rebounds and eight assists — in a 105-52 rout of Stroh’s Squad in Friday’s round of 64 contest, Goodwin stuffed the stat sheet again Sunday. He led La Familia in points (16) and assists (six); his point total would have been greater if he hadn’t struggled so mightily at the free-throw line, where he was 2 for 9.
Goodwin said he’ll immediately erase the dismal free-throw performance from his mind.
“If I don’t flush it, then it’ll trickle over to the next game. … I know it’s just a correction that I need to make,” he said. “I’ve already recognized what it is.”
As soon as the postgame news conference wrapped up, Goodwin noted he’d return to the court and get to work on free throws.
Perhaps his teammates should join him.
As it was, the charity stripe wasn’t so charitable to the rest of La Familia, either: It made just 52.9% (18 for 34) of its attempts. War Ready was better, making 16 of its 25 free throws, a success rate of 64%.
Owing to the game’s physical nature, the free-throw line was a frequent stop Sunday, as the teams combined to commit a whopping 48 fouls (27 by War Ready, 21 by La Familia).
“When you’ve got one man on this side and one man on this side, and you’ve got a million dollars in the middle?” said La Familia coach Sean Woods, referring to the $1 million prize the TBT champion receives. “What you think (the intensity) is going to be like?”
Woods went on.
“Both teams (were) battling … for their lives,” he said, “and that’s what you got — that type of ending.”
Wendell Green Jr. led all players in scoring Sunday, ending with 20 points in a losing effort for War Ready.
“He was spectacular tonight, and we said he had to score 30 to beat us,” Woods said. “Well, he scored 20 on 7-for-18 (shooting). So, he did his part, but he just wasn’t enough for this La Familia team.”
Woods credited War Ready “for fighting and scrapping.” When it tied the game at 76, War Ready needed just three more points to reach the target score and stun the hosts. But La Familia’s defense answered the bell. War Ready attempted four 3s that would have capped a shocking come-from-behind victory.
Yet the visitors missed all four, setting the stage for Goodwin’s game-winning heroics.
“They didn’t care that they (were) in our place. They gave us everything they got,” Woods said. “But this is Kentucky. Especially with them, we find a way to win more times than Auburn does.”
Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.