Montrezl Harrell discusses The Ville’s TBT Game 2 win over La Familia
Montrezl Harrell reacts after scoring 35 points to lead The Ville, Louisville basketball’s alumni team, past Kentucky’s La Familia in TBT 2026 Game 2.
Coverage from the game:
Kentucky basketball alumni hang on vs Louisville to capture TBT series
Louisville alumni on wrong end of thriller in TBT Game 3 loss to La Familia
Coverage during the game:
LEXINGTON — It all comes down to this.
Alumni teams from archrivals Louisville and Kentucky will meet for a third time in five days today at Memorial Coliseum with a spot in The Basketball Tournament’s second round on the line.
The winner will move one step closer to the competition’s $2 million grand prize, setting up a single-elimination game against either the Syracuse alumni team or Seton Hall alumni team at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 26. The loser will go home.
The Ville took Game 2 in dominant fashion Monday, July 20, at Freedom Hall — riding a 35-point performance from Montrezl Harrell to an 82-62 win. When the teams met in Lexington for Game 1 over the weekend, La Familia held off a furious rally from the former Cardinals to emerge with a 72-68 victory.
“If we can look at the game and just think of it as, ‘Each possession means everything to us,’ I think we’ll be in a good spot,” The Ville coach Michael Baffour said after his team evened the series Monday, looking ahead to today’s decisive matchup.
The Courier Journal is bringing you live score updates and highlights from Game 3 between The Ville and La Familia. Follow along below:
La Familia is moving on to the second round of The Basketball Tournament.
Archie Goodwin scored the walk-off bucket to finish with a game-high 22 points in his first game for La Familia this summer.
Montrezl Harrell led The Ville with 18 points.
La Familia will next play at 2 p.m. Sunday — against either Syracuse’s alumni team or Seton Hall’s alumni team.
Elam Ending time. The target score is 63 points.
The Ville pulled within a point, but Archie Goodwin promptly buried a 3 on the other end to bolster La Familia’s lead.
The rivals are even at five points apiece thus far in the fourth quarter.
The Elam Ending target score will be set at the first dead ball with under four minutes remaining in regulation.
A dominant, dominant quarter for the hosts.
La Familia 20, The Ville 10.
There’s now only one quarter remaining to decide which team advances to the TBT quarterfinals.
La Familia isn’t slowing down. It’s extended its run, scoring 16 of the 20 points in the quarter.
After trailing by five at the half, it now leads The Ville by seven points.
The hosts have been the better club out of the locker room: La Familia opens the third quarter outscoring The Ville 10-2. Archie Goodwin and Darryl Morsell each have a 3 during the run.
For the second consecutive game in the series, The Ville leads at halftime. But La Familia has momentum after winning the second quarter, 12-9.
Montrezl Harrell leads all scorers with 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting. He’s also grabbed a game-high seven rebounds.
Darryl Morsell and Willie Cauley-Stein have combined to score 17 of La Familia’s points on 8-for-11 shooting.
The ex-Cats have turned the ex-Cards’ five turnovers into eight points.
Neither team is shooting particularly well. The rivals are a combined 3 for 26 from 3-point range.
A 6-0 run has La Familia within striking distance — and a sparse Memorial Coliseum crowd as loud as it’s been all evening.
The ex-Cats did not benefit from challenging an out-of-bounds call, however. Officials said a video review revealed a foul on Darryl Morsell, giving The Ville possession.
Both offenses have slowed down here in the second quarter, with the teams totaling 14 points through the first six minutes of the period.
The visitors have had their way through the opening nine minutes. They end the first quarter with an eight-point lead.
La Familia is shooting 33.3% (4 for 12) from the field while The Ville sits at 42.9% (9 of 21). The Ville has nine second-chance points while La Familia has only two.
Montrezl Harrell is the contest’s leading scorer so far, with nine points in the opening stanza. Darryl Morsell has five to pace La Familia.
Not surprisingly given the intense rivalry between Kentucky and Louisville, it’s already been a tense tussle so far.
A UK great and a longtime NBA player, Rajon Rondo needs no introduction. But his son, Pierre Rondo, is making a name for himself as well.
Both are in attendance for the decisive game of the best-of-three series between La Familia and The Ville.
A rising ninth grader, the younger Rondo put forth a stellar debut in his first appearance in the state tournament last season, pouring in 25 points to go along with seven assists and four rebounds for North Oldham High School boys basketball team. That performance occured in a 74-61 victory for North Oldham over Lyon County in the first round of the UK HealthCare Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena.
Pierre is a 5-foot-11 point guard in the 2030 class.
The visitors have the upper hand early on.
The Ville has had four different players, double La Familia’s tally. The Ville also has doubled up the hosts on the boards: The Louisville alumni club has eight rebounds, while UK’s group has four.
Here are The Ville’s starters:
- Chris Jones
- Trey Lewis
- Alex Matthews
- Jaylen Johnson
- Montrezl Harrell
Here are La Familia’s starters:
- Andrew Harrison
- Darryl Morsell
- Archie Goodwin
- James Mainor-Bell
- Willie Cauley-Stein
Two members of The Ville’s starting lineup for Monday’s Game 2 rout of La Familia will not be available for tonight’s series finale.
David Johnson, the team’s No. 2 scorer at 13 points per game, has been ruled out due to norovirus; and Malik Williams is out due to personal reasons. That’s according to a post on X, formerly Twitter, from TBT’s official stats and information account.
Alex Matthews, an Elizabethtown native who starred at John Hardin High School, will take Johnson’s place in the starting lineup. He delivered the highlight of Monday’s win: a ferocious poster dunk over Chris Coffey.
Jaylen Johnson will start in place of Williams.
Archie Goodwin was on La Familia’s roster at the outset of TBT but was not with the team for its first two games against The Ville. After the ex-Cats dropped Game 2 at Freedom Hall, coach Jon Hood expressed frustration over his and other’s absence, saying: “That’s nothing that we can control.”
Better late than never. La Familia announced the morning of Game 3 that Goodwin was in Lexington and will be suiting up for the team today.
La Familia and The Ville will tip off at 6 p.m. today inside Memorial Coliseum.
Today’s decisive game in the series between The Ville and La Familia will air on FS1.
You’ll also be able to livestream the game via services such as Fubo, which offers a free trial here.
Click here to see La Familia’s complete roster.
Click here to see The Ville’s complete roster.
Tickets are still available for today’s game. Click here to see the prices.
Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at [email protected] and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
