CEDAR CITY — The Southern Utah University men’s basketball team is still playing — and winning.
According to a press release, the Thunderbirds saw Dre Marin knock down a career-high seven 3-pointers, earn MVP honors and lead SUU to an 83-79 victory over Kent State Wednesday night in Cedar City.
The victory came in the Willis Reed game in the first round of The Basketball Classic presented by ERACISM.
The inaugural Basketball Classic is a postseason Division I tournament featuring teams that did not get invited to the NCAA’s March Madness tournament or to the NIT.
“Kent State is an outstanding team. That’s an NCAA tournament-quality team with a lot of talent,” T-birds coach Todd Simon said. “It was fun to measure up and see where we stood with them.”
The win marked the 21st victory of the season for SUU, which is the second-highest win total in a single season in the program’s history. It was also the second postseason win in SUU history.
Marin’s 28 points in the contest marked the second-highest scoring outing of his career.
“For me, it’s not about how many points I scored or any stats,” Marin said. “I’m just really happy that I got the opportunity to play in front of these amazing fans again, and I’ll always remember this game and this environment.”
The T-birds and Golden Flashes were even most of the night and neither team ever led by more than seven points. There were seven ties and five lead changes in the contest.
SUU sank 28 field goals in the victory, and 20 of them had an assist. The T-birds shot a scorching 60 percent from the field in the second half to secure the win.
SUU was hot beyond the arc as well, sinking a blistering 41.4 percent (12-for-29) of its 3-point attempts.
Four different T-birds scored in double figures and seven out of the nine players who saw action for SUU tallied at least one point. Eight different players recorded at least one assist in the win.
John Knight III scored 14 points, Jason Spurgin threw in 13 and Harrison Butler scored 11 to pace the T-birds to the win. As a team, SUU outrebounded Kent State 34-31 in the contest.
The Basketball Classic reseeds its teams after each round, so SUU has to wait to find out its next opponent. They should know who they’ll play this weekend, and the game will tip off next week.
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