CEDAR CITY — The men’s basketball team at Southern Utah University saw its record-setting run in the postseason come to an end Monday night after a 67-48 loss to Fresno State.
The defeat in the semifinals of the inaugural Basketball Classic postseason tournament ends a year that saw the T-birds post the second-most wins (23) in a single season in SUU’s Division I history.
According to a press release, the T-birds played in their third game in six days Monday night against the Bulldogs, who led 6-0 after three minutes of play.
Dre Marin scored a bucket that fueled a six-point SUU run to tie the game.
But then SUU went scoreless for nearly the next 10 minutes and Fresno State took a commanding 20-6 lead. The T-birds trailed 34-16 at halftime.
SUU got no closer than 16 points for the rest of the contest as the Bulldogs advanced to face Coastal Carolina in the final of The Basketball Classic.
Maizen Fausett led SUU with nine points while Marin and Jason Spurgin each chipped in with eight points for the T-birds.
Marin, Fausett, John Knight III and Harrison Butler all reached the 1,000-point mark in scoring over the course of the season.
SUU had one postseason win in its Division I history prior to this season.
The T-birds earned three more postseason victories in The Basketball Classic, taking down opponents from the MAC, Conference USA and the WCC.
SUU had back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time in its Division I history. Next year, SUU will join Utah Tech and Utah Valley in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).
Head coach Todd Simon has directed SUU to an overall record of 43-16 with a 26-8 mark in Big Sky Conference play over the past two seasons.
Knight III was a first team Big Sky All-Conference performer while Fausett and Tevian Jones were each named to the All-Conference third team. Knight III’s season will continue with his selection to the Dos Equis 3X3U National Championship. The event is scheduled to take place April 1-3 at The Sugar Mill in New Orleans, in conjunction with the Final Four.
According to an SUU press release, 64 players from the32 Division I conferences have been selected to take part in the Tournament. The players will be split into 16 separate teams to compete for the grand prize of $150,000.
Knight III led the Big Sky conference in steals (1.9) and field goal percentage (.535), while also finishing fourth in assists (4.1) and 10th in scoring (14.4). Knight III reached the 1,000-point scoring mark for his career this season and finished his SUU career ranked in the top 10 of the program’s history in points, assists, steals and career field goal percentage.
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