Christopher Lockridge 
Barstool Sports hosted its 2nd Annual Invitational Tournament recently at Wintrust Arena. The tournament kicked off at 6 pm with Florida Atlantic University, also known as FAU, who is ranked number 10 in the country, vs Loyola IL. The game started out great with both teams battling back and forth with the first half ended with FAU leading 43-30. Loyola was doing a great job at keeping up with a top 10 school. By the second half, Loyola continued to compete, but couldn’t battle back. Both teams scored an even 32 ending the game 75-62. The key player for Loyola was Phillip Alston. He put up 15 points and 6 rebounds. For FAU, Johnell Davis and Brandon Weatherspoon had 12 points a piece, Nicholas Boyd had 13 points, and Vladislav Goldin had 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Goldin ended up leaving with the MVP Award. Coach Valentine, the head coach for Loyola IL., stated, “We played well. We had too many turnovers, but it’s the beginning of the season, we can fix that. This team is highly ranked and they beat us by 13. We just have to improve as we go.”
After FAU and Loyola IL., Mississippi State and Arizona State hit the court. Tip off was at 9 pm and Mississippi State started out hot. The game was in Mississippi State’s hands as soon as the game started. Arizona State looked like they weren’t ready to compete because they found themselves down 49-18 at the half. Arizona’s shooting was bad for the majority of the game and that’s what killed them. The Sun Devils shot as low as eight percent from three-point range.
The Sun Devils finished 23.8 percent from three-point range only hitting 5/21 three-point shots. The game finished with the score being 71-56 with Mississippi State taking the W. The key players for the Sun Devils were Kamari Lands and Frankie Collins. Lands had 13 points and 4 rebounds while Collins had 10 points and 3 rebounds. For Mississippi State, Jimmy Bell Jr. who had 13 points and 9 rebounds and Trey Fort with 21 points were unstoppable. Fort ended up taking home the MVP trophy. Fort stated, “This feels great and it’s only the beginning, we have to add more trophies to the case but this MVP trophy is going in the living room. Everyone has to see this.”
By Christopher Lockridge
Instagram: Lockotb
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