On the back of sweltering team defense and 25 points from Marcus Hatten, the FCM Untouchables cruised past the Paul Champions 91-57 in the second round of The Basketball Tournament on Sunday.
The Untouchables started the game on a 30-10 run, and led by as many as 28 points, forced 19 turnovers and gathered 14 steals as a team while holding Paul Champions to 37% from the floor.
Hatten got off to a good start on Saturday night when he hit 50% from deep and continued his momentum into Sunday. Of Hatten’s nine field goals, seven were from behind the arc.
After a first round upset on Saturday, Paul Champions seemed poised to give the top seeded Untouchables a run for their money with former NBA player Earl Boykins, and a 7’6” center Mamadou Ndiaye protecting the paint. Boykins only made one of his seven field goal attempts, and Ndiaye was largely ineffective on offense, only attempting three field goals.
The Untouchables exploited Paul Champions’ zone by lighting it up from downtown, converting over 46% of their three-point attempts as a team.
Torey Thomas was the leading scorer for Paul, but was still unable to eclipse double figures, scoring only nine points.
Team FCM Untouchables is now headed up I-95 to Brooklyn (at LIU) to play in the Super 16 on Thursday July 20th at 5 PM. That game can be seen on ESPN2.