For three and a half quarters, Big X seemed poised to eke out an upset win against Red Scare and stay alive in The Basketball Tournament.

But it ran out of steam with an untimely scoring drought late, and the No. 8 seed Dayton alumni team capitalized as Ryan Mikesell hit a three for a 77-68 win to advance to the third round past No. 9 Big X.

"Obviously this wasn't the ending that we wanted and the way we wanted to go out, but the week as a whole was pretty exciting," former Buckeye and Big X guard C.J. Jackson said.

Former Dayton wing Darrell Davis drilled two straight threes to put Red Scare a shot away from a win, and even after Vitto Brown hit two threes of his own to keep Big X alive, it was too little too late.

Davis led the way with 15 points for Red Scare.

Each team traded leads for much of the second half, but Red Scare got some breathing room ahead of the Elam ending, as former Dayton guard Kyle Davis scored helped lead a 7-0 run for Red scare.

Four turnovers and 2:45 scoring drought before the Elam ending ultimately doomed Big X, as Red Scare stayed consistent on offense.

Both teams found their groove in the third quarter, as each shot 50 percent from three and exchanged the lead several times, but Big X retained a two-point lead into the fourth quarter after a three from Wake Forest’s LD Williams.

Through a 50-second stretch in the third quarter, a three-pointer was hit on four consecutive possessions, with each team hitting two apiece. Three more long-range bombs were connected upon in the final 90 seconds of the quarter, including the fourth of the game by Red Scare’s Ryan McMahon.

Big X began the second quarter down, but former Wisconsin guard Trevon Hughes caught fire to bring his team back up five with a 38-33 lead over the Red Scare at halftime.

Hughes hit 6-of-7 shots, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, to finish with 15 points in the second quarter –– three more points than the team scored in the entire first period.

Hughes led the team with 20 points on the day.

Big X ended the final 1:25 of the first half on a 7-0 run, as Hughes hit a rhythm three followed by a scoop and score on a dribble drive on back to back possessions before former Ohio State point guard C.J. Jackson closed out the run with two free throws.

Before Hughes’ big run, Big X began the game 5-for-20 from the field and was down seven points in the first few minutes of the second quarter after a two-handed power slam by former Ohio State center Trevor Thompson.

Thompson finished with 12 points for Red Scare.

"He had a really good game, he played well," Jackson said. "He showed his skills that I've known he had for all this time. I'm glad he was able to play the way he was, just being an old teammate."

From opening tip, both teams started cold, missing their first six shots combined before former Michigan State forward Nick Ward connected on a deep two-point jumper.

Ward had just two points in the second half.

"He obviously holds his own, but Trevon was hot and Nick just couldn't get some of those to fall," head coach Andrew Dakich said.

Ward led the way for Big X with four points in the opening period, but he played just four minutes, and Red Scare roared back with a 10-0 run that helped it take a 15-12 lead into the second period.

Thompson scored five early points for the majority Dayton Alumni team, including a three-pointer from the top of the key in the opening minutes.

Jackson hit a deep three of his own for Big X to take an early 9-5 lead, but they were outscored 10-3 the rest of the quarter.

Red Scare advances to play the winner of Carmen's Crew and House of 'Paign.