The Seattle University’s Men’s Basketball team travelled down to Las Vegas for the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) tournament. Unfortunately, the odds weren’t in the Redhawks favor as they fell in a close semi finals game against New Mexico State University.

Transfer graduate Jordan Hill was happy to at least have the experience.

“I thought we came out and played some good basketball. It’s unfortunate that we came up short, I think we’re all very sad that we don’t have the chance to play in the NCAA tournament, but it was a great experience,” he said.

The men started things off Thursday night in the New Orleans Arena as they took on the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). e Redhawks came out victorious, capturing a 77-60 win, along with their 20th win this season for the first time re-entering into the Division I stage since the 1963-64 season.

Image courtesy of Sarah Finney, Seattle University Athletics

Richaud Gittens added 17 points to the men’s game against UTRGV.

Transfer graduate Richaud Gittens led the way for the Redhawks as he added 17 points. Transfer graduate Josh Hearlihy followed close behind as he racked up 16 points for the Redhawks. Redshirt junior Aaron Menzies recorded 12 points.

“It’s a conference tournament, it’s always a big stage to play on. It was a great environment, we had a lot of fans,” Gittens said. “Our team gave everything they had, unfortunately we came up short, but that didn’t show how much we put into our season.”

Sophomore Morgan Means acknowledged that the team left it all on the court.

“We gave it our all, we put in a lot of energy and effort last weekend. Unfortunately, we did come up short, but I don’t think that showed how much we grew in that last weekend,” Means said.

The No. 4 seeded Redhawks unfortunately came up short in the semi- final game against New Mexico 84-79. This gave the Aggies the golden ticket to the Championship game, where they eventually took home the WAC Championship title and will play in the NCAA Tournament. Both Hearlihy and Hill racked up a total of 23 points each. Gittens followed with 12 points.

Head coach Jim Hayford was pleased with the team’s effort.

“The team has done great, and they represented our school well. We gave New Mexico State all they could handle and were just a few plays away from beating them. I’m excited that we have more time together, and more games that we get to play.”

The Redhawks season isn’t over as the team will continue their post- season in the College Basketball Invitational Tournament this upcoming Wednesday. The Redhawks will host Central Arkansas at Connolly Complex. Tip off begins at 7 p.m.

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