California Irvine/Chattanooga for Men’s NIT Title

NIT Men’s Semifinal Games 

California Irvine (31-6) 69 North Texas State (27-8) 67

by: Steven Stremming, Excel H Sports/USBWA

Tuesday night, April 1, 2025, was the date and the Historic Hinkle Fieldhouse was the site for the semifinals of the Men’s NIT.

Game one featured a tale of two halves, well actually the hot start by North Texas and the determined will of the Anteaters to tie the game at the end of the first half.

Back to the start though, North Texas played a staggering defense and swarmed Cal Irvine into a quick deficit that extended out to 15 points at the 8:32 mark in the first half.

Though the Mean Green (North Texas) led for nearly 12 minutes in the early going before the Anteaters mounted a defense.

North Texas hit ten of their first twenty shots from the field that included four from behind the arc and lead 24 to nine at that 8:32 mark.

After turning the ball over numerous times to start the game the Anteaters started their comeback when Myles Che, 6’2, Los Angeles, California Sophomore finished a layup which led California Irvine to finish the half with eight of twelve shots that was keyed by redshirt Senior Devin Tillis.

North Texas finished the half as cold as the Anteaters started it by going two of twelve from the floor.

Tillis led the way with 16 points and added eleven boards in the winning effort and a school record thirty-second victory.

Karlsfeld, Germany Senior Bent Leuchten contributed 14 points and nine boards and the game at 6.7 seconds when he canned both ends of a one and one from the charity stripe.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota graduate student, Justin Hohn added eight assits and eleven points and Che added 11 points and five assists.

North Texas was led by Hawthorne, California Senior, Atin Wright’s 25 points followed by Jasper Floyd’s 16.

Hinkle was rocking tonight after four strong showings by the universities supporting their respective teams.

Chattanooga (27-9) 80 Loyola, Chicago (25-11) 73

by: Steven Stremming, Excel H Sports/USBWA

In the nightcap, Loyola brought a very large crowd and Chattanooga faithful followed as well.

The Moccasins’ 6’10, redshirt freshman Colin Mullholland opened up a ten-point lead with a layup to have the scoreboard reading 67 to 57 after Chattanooga trailed by four at the half, 38 to 34.

Chattanooga staved off a Rambler attack by finishing the game with a six nothing run and secured their spot in the NIT final against California Irvine.

For the game, Chattanooga was led by Trey Dunham’s 23 points on ten of sixteen from the field that included three of six from behind the arc.

Honor Huff aided the cause with 12 on four of thirteen shooting, Bash Wieland added twelve on six of twelve from the field while Garrison Keeslar took down seven boards and added five assists.

Makai Richards scored ten off the bench by going five of five from the field.

Loyola was led by Jayden Daniels 10, Miles Rubin 14 and six boards and Des Winston’s 10.

Jalen DeLoach added 13 on four of four from the field and five of five from the line.