LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Most players spend timeouts listening. Montrezl Harrell spent one Monday night delivering a sermon.
Early in the second half, with The Ville beginning to pull away, Harrell ducked out of the timeout huddle, spotted former Louisville teammate and NBA player Jordan Nwora sitting nearby and pointed toward him.
"It's a whole different game when I touch the ball," Harrell shouted. "You see what I'm sayin'?"
Everybody could see it.
La Familia couldn't stop it.
Harrell scored 35 points on 14-16 shooting, and The Ville pounded La Familia 82-62 at Freedom Hall to even this best-of-three Kentucky alumni grudge match and force a decisive game Wednesday night at 6 at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington.
It was a complete reversal from Saturday, when La Familia controlled the game at Memorial Coliseum, opened a 17-point lead, and held on 72-68.
Monday was Louisville's turn to remember everything.
The Ville remembered to defend. It remembered to rebound. Most importantly, it remembered that Montrezl Harrell was on its team.
Its strategy in Game 1 occasionally treated Harrell as though he were a decorative indoor plant. He was present, impressive and insufficiently involved.
The Ville attempted 28 three-pointers Saturday and made six. Coach Michael Balfour watched the film and reached the sort of sophisticated tactical conclusion that separates basketball's greatest minds from the rest of us:
Perhaps they should throw the ball to the 6-foot-7 former NBA Sixth Man of the Year who has spent much of his adult life frightening people near the basket.
So they did.
He scored from the block, on rolls, on putbacks, from midrange, once from three and occasionally from areas where La Familia appeared to believe zoning ordinances prohibited defensive resistance.
La Familia coach Jon Hood was asked afterward what he saw from Harrell.
"I saw that he had 35," Hood said.
This was accurate scouting.
Harrell also grabbed eight rebounds, handed out two assists and played 34 minutes without committing a foul or a turnover. He passed out of double teams, set screens and found open shooters.
"I'm a smart basketball player, man," he said. "It's not just about coming in, just scoring a ton of points."
True.
But the ton of points was a pleasant accessory. Harrell had scored 42 points in a BIG3 game Sunday, then returned to Freedom Hall Monday and made 14 of 16 shots.
That is 77 points in roughly 24 hours, which is more production than some municipal power grids.
Asked how he managed it, Harrell smiled.
"I'm blessed, brother."
Then he explained that the blessing involves his craft, his recovery and everything he has learned about preparing his body during more than two decades of playing basketball.
The blessing, apparently, comes with an owner's manual.
Balfour said Harrell is especially dangerous when motivated and carrying a chip on his shoulder. On Monday, Harrell appeared to have arrived carrying the entire lumberyard.
"It was a statement game for me today," he said. "I seen all the online talk and all the nonsense."
Harrell said he knows the work he puts into his game and what he remains capable of doing.
The statement was 35 points long and written in capital letters.
As Harrell told Nwora during that second-half timeout, it is a different game when he touches the ball.
He wasn’t wrong.
The Ville did everything Monday that it failed to do Saturday. It won the rebounding battle 43-30. It doubled La Familia in paint scoring, 40-20. It held the visitors to 33.9% shooting and produced 15 second-chance points to La Familia's six.
Saturday, La Familia's collection of former Kentucky players and assorted hired hands looked deeper, sharper and more comfortable.
Monday, it looked like eight men waiting for the Lexington bus.
Andrew Harrison scored 19 points and made four three-pointers. Chris Coffey added 14. The rest of La Familia shot a combined 10 of 43.
The Ville led by as many as 26 in the second half. What had been billed as a heated alumni rivalry became a lengthy opportunity for Louisville fans to stand, point and remember old grievances.
There were technical fouls. There was jawing. There were bodies on the floor and enough irritability to reassure everyone that, despite roster additions from other schools, the central premise remained intact. At one point on Louisville's bench, three players had massage guns going simultaneously.
Then came Alex Matthews.
In The Basketball Tournament, the Elam Ending begins with four minutes to play.
At Freedom Hall on Monday night, it wasn't really necessary.
Alex Matthews of The Ville soars in for a dunk over La Familia in a TBT victory in Freedom Hall.
The Ville had already supplied the ending. Matthews merely added the special effects.
With 4:10 to play, Matthews took off toward the basket with La Familia's Chris Coffey stationed between him and the rim, which turned out to be roughly as useful as standing on railroad tracks and asking the locomotive to reconsider.
Matthews climbed over him and threw down a vicious right-handed dunk.
Freedom Hall came apart. Current Louisville players sprang out of their baseline seats. Adrian Wooley looked delirious. Flory Bidunga saw me flipping back to the photo on my camera and leaned down to look.
"That," he said, "is iconic."
The score became 72-49. The crowd detonated. La Familia had been served notice that this was no longer a basketball game so much as a Louisville revenge fantasy with uniforms.
On the next possession, Matthews tossed an alley-oop to Harrell for another dunk.
That made it 74-49.
Then they stopped the clock and announced the target score.
It was a little like establishing a finish line after Secretariat had reached the barn.
Matthews did not attend Louisville. The Elizabethtown native and John Hardin High School graduate is one of the few players on The Ville's roster who arrived without a personal chapter in the rivalry.
He is caught up now.
"It's definitely different from what you see on TV when you're actually on the court experiencing it," Matthews said. "But for me, I love seeing that stuff. The rivalries, especially UK-U of L, you can't beat that."
Matthews scored 14 points, made three of four three-pointers and had four assists.
But nobody will remember the respectable efficiency.
They will remember the dunk.
Matthews called it "the icing on the cake."
That understates the matter.
It was the cake, the icing, the candles and the waiter dropping the entire thing onto La Familia's table.
Now the series returns to Lexington, where La Familia will have its home crowd and The Ville will carry the memory of what happened Monday.
The first two games have settled almost nothing except this: Each team is capable of making the other look old, tired and poorly organized.
Wednesday will settle the rest.
La Familia will have Memorial Coliseum. The Ville will have Montrezl Harrell.
Monday suggested one of those advantages may matter a little more than the other.
CORRECTION: The original version of this story incorrectly reported the start time of TBT Game 3 Wednesday night in Lexington. It is 6 p.m.
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