Laura O'Dell
Honor Huff drives on UC Irvine in NIT Championship.
With March ending, that means the same for the NCAA basketball tournaments. Everyone knows of the infamous March Madness tournament, where everyone fills out a bracket to see how well they do. Only 64 teams can make the cut for the March tournament. What about the other teams, you might ask? Well, if they are good enough, they will receive an invitation from the “NIT” tournament, which stands for “Not In Tournament”. This tournament may not be as skilled as March Madness, but don’t get it twisted; the teams in this tournament could still play in the March Madness tournament.
Local D1 College UTC Mocs got an invitation to the NIT tournament, and they have been putting on a show. With last Tuesday night’s win against Loyola Chicago, they advanced to the finals to play against the UC Irvine Anteaters on Thursday. UTC entered this game 28-9 record behind stand-out stars Trey Bonham and Honor Huff, while UC Irvine is 32-6 with star forward Devin Tillis. UTC was going into this game as the underdogs, as UC Irvine was favored to win 63% to 57%.
For UTC to have a chance leading scorer Honor Huff who averages 15.2 points a game shooting 43.1% from the field and 42% behind the arc would need to have a big night. Against Loyola Chicago, he only hit 4-10 behind the three-point line but a step back three in the 2nd half helped seal the deal to advance them to the finals.
UTC got out to an eight-point lead in the first minutes of the game but UC Irvine quickly closed the gap and it stayed close for the remainder of the half. A last-second half-court shot from Trey Bonham put the Mocs up by one going into the break. The second half was much the same with UC Irvine only getting ahead of UTC by eight during the half. A missed jumper and 3-pointer by Collin Mulholland as time expired sent the game into overtime.
In overtime, the teams traded the lead several times but an assist from Huff to Garrison Keeslar for the jumper put the Mocs up by one. Two seconds on the clock and UC Irvine on the inbound down the court to Jurian Dixon who misses the layup in the paint as the clock hits zero. The Mocs defied the odds and got the win 85-84. Head Coach Dan Earl said after the game This might have been our least efficient offensive game in, I can’t even tell you how long, so there was some great defense involved in this game, which we were fortunate to come out on top against a very, very good UC Irvine team.
The Mocs finished the season 29-9 overall, 15-3 in the SoCon. Second time in school history with 29 wins. Its the first time in school history with three students with 500 or more points in a single season, Huff (578), Bonham (554), and Wieland (502).