The Utah State Aggies are heading back to the US as winners of the fifth annual Cayman Islands Classic basketball tournament after dominating the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks in the finals on Tuesday, 21 Nov.
The Aggies, whose last major win was at the 2020 Mountain West tournament, entered the Cayman pre-season tournament as considerable underdogs but showed throughout the three days of competition that winning was their only option.
All the games were held at the John Gray High School gymnasium where fans turned out in numbers to witness Utah defeat SFA 79-49.
In the semi–finals – the day before – Utah squeaked by Akron 65-61. Prior to that, the team convincingly beat Marshall 83-60.
In addition to all the Aggie players sharing in the celebrations of winning the event, Utah’s redshirt freshman Mason Falsev finished the finals with a game-high 19 points, while posting nine rebounds and six assists on his way to earning all-tournament honours.
His teammate Great Osobor, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player, filled the stat sheet with 14 points, seven rebounds, two assists, three steals and three blocked shots for the last game.
Just before the finals, the battle for third and fourth place finished with the Drake Bulldogs taking the bronze medal by defeating the Akron Zips 79-59.
The action will continue this Friday, with the Cayman Classic inaugural women’s tournament, featuring Virginia Tech; University of Connecticut; University of California, Los Angeles; Niagara; Tulane; Virginia; Louisiana State University; and Kansas.
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