Marial Shayok, who played three seasons at UVA back in the 2010s, and Carlik Jones, who scored points a game at Radford before finishing up at Louisville, had South Sudan thisclose to perhaps the biggest basketball upset of all time, before a LeBron James layup saved Team USA in a 101-100 win on Saturday in a London tuneup game.
Seriously, South Sudan should have beaten Team USA.
Shayok played at UVA from 2014-2017 before transferring to Iowa State for his last season of college ball.
He’s played in a grand total of four NBA games, with Philadelphia in the 2019-2020 season, and played last season in China.
On Saturday against Team USA, he was, a good part of the way, the best player on the floor, scoring 25 points, connecting on 9-of-16 from the floor and 6-of-12 from three-point range in 28 minutes.
Jones, the Big South Player of the Year in 2020, and the G League Player of the Year in 2023, messed around and got a triple-double, going for 15 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists on Saturday.
South Sudan led by 14 at the half before Team USA rallied in the third quarter.
It was 99-92 Team USA when a Shayok three with 1:32 to go cut the lead to four, and then a Shayok stickback with 49 seconds left made it a two-point game.
JT Thor, who has played with the Charlotte Hornets for the past three seasons, drilled a three with 20 seconds left to put South Sudan on top.
The James driving layup with eight seconds left got Team USA back on top.
Jones missed a runner with six seconds left, and Wenyen Gabriel, who played his college ball at Kentucky, bounced around the NBA and played last season in Israel, was blocked by Anthony Edwards on a stickback with three seconds to go.
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Chris Graham
