Keene’s killer 3 sends AfterShocks to Elite 8 in another TBT thriller
Marcus Keene has hit game-winners before.
But not like this.
With the game tied at 63 and the Elam Ending target score set at 66, Keene sidestepped into a 3-pointer from well beyond the arc — drifting away, contested and impossibly high.
“It was like slow motion,” teammate Trey Wade said.
“As soon as I saw it go that high, I knew it was good,” added Markis McDuffie, “We up out of here.”
When the shot splashed through the net — pure, no rim — the crowd of more than 3,000 inside Koch Arena erupted. Keene never cracked a smile. As pandemonium surrounded him, he played it off like he had written the script and already knew the ending.
“I’m not trying to sound cocky, but that’s not my first game winning shot,” Keene said. “I’m just glad that I got to show the Wichita fans what I’m capable of. That’s all I wanted to do. But we’re not over. We’ve still got three more.”
The 66-63 win over Forever Coogs propelled the AfterShocks to their fourth regional championship in the last five years and another spot in The Basketball Tournament’s Elite 8. They’ll face the Kansas City regional winner, either Heartfire or the KU alumni team, at 8 p.m. Sunday, July 27.
In AfterShocks lore, Keene’s moon ball will rank right behind Conner Frankamp’s legendary Elam Ending winner from 2021 in front of nearly 7,000 fans. For coach Zach Bush, the feeling was familiar.
“I 100% had flashbacks of Conner’s shot against ALS and chasing him all over the court,” Bush said. “It’s just euphoric. It’s such a rush. The roar of the crowd here is so special. I love that these guys get to experience it.”
It almost didn’t happen.
Moments before Keene’s shot, Bush called timeout with 17 seconds on the shot clock — just as Keene had found a mismatch he liked. Keene was visibly frustrated walking to the huddle.
“I was going to do that same thing I just did,” Keene said, smiling. “(Bush) called a timeout and probably gave me a little chance to catch my breathe. But I went out and did the same thing I was going to do.”
During the timeout, Bush debated feeding Marcus Santos-Silva, who was dominant inside with 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting. But in the end, it was an easy decision to set Keene free to hunt the walk-off win.
“This is exactly why we signed him for,” McDuffie said.
“At the end, you’ve just got to trust your players,” Bush said. “That’s what you have to do in TBT. We don’t have 35 practices to sharpen things. So you’ve just got to trust them to be players.”
Out of the timeout, Keene found a sliver of daylight when he caught his defender, Galen Robinson, leaning the wrong way in anticipation of a screen set by Rashard Kelly. That’s all the space he needed to explode right, plant from four feet beyond the arc and let if fly before Robinson could recover.
After a slow start to TBT — Keene shot just 5-for-24 in his first two games — he broke out with a team-high 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting. None bigger than his final three.
“Sometimes when I know a shot is off, I’ll say it in my head,” Keene said. “But that one right there, I knew. As soon as I got the right arc on it, I knew.”
The AfterShocks are now 4-0 in regional finals and one of only six teams in TBT history to reach four national quarterfinals. With La Familiar, Kentucky’s alumni, losing earlier Tuesday, the path to the $1 million prize could go entirely through Wichita.
“Our saying right now is, ‘Don’t fumble the money,’” Keene said. “It’s literally in our hands now. We have the home crowd. We have the advantage. As long as we play hard and stay consistent in what we do, I think we can get it done.”
The crowd Tuesday night seemed to sense that. Louder, more electric than before. And the players responded with another unforgettable moment at the Roundhouse.
And now three wins away from the title, all potentially on their home court, the AfterShocks have never liked their chances more.
“It’s definitely some pressure, but I think it gives us more confidence,” Bush said. “It’s going to be hard every game from here on out. But man, it’s such an advantage to be able to play at Koch Arena with these fans. Everything comes through us. If you’re going to knock us off, you’ve got to come here and beat us.”
This story was originally published July 23, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
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