The Colorado State Rams defeated the Northeastern Huskies 71-61 to win the 2021 Paradise Jam Men’s Championship after overcoming a 20 point second-half deficit. By. PARADISE JAM
The Colorado State Rams will leave the Virgin Islands as the 2021 Paradise Jam Men’s Champions after they overcame a 20 point second-half deficit to defeat the Northeastern Huskies 71-61 to conclude a competitive final day of basketball at the UVI Sports and Fitness Center Monday.
After trailing by 20 with seventeen and half minutes remaining in the game, Colorado State outscored Northeastern 38-6 over a thirteen and a half minute span that clinched the Paradise Jam title for their school.
Tournament MVP David Roddy scored 17 of his game high 27 points during this run. Jahmyl Telfort led Northeastern in scoring with 18 points in the loss.
In the third-place game, Creighton’s Ryan Nembhard hit a floating jump shot at the buzzer to give his team a 66-64 win.
Southern Illinois led by eight points, 62-54, with four minutes left in the game before Creighton scored ten straight points to give them a 64-62 lead with about a minute and a half left in the game.
Southern Illinois’s Marcus Domask tied the game at 64 with five seconds left before Nembhard caught the ensuing inbound pass and dribbled the length of the floor before hitting the game-winning shot.
Ryan Kalkbrenner had 14 points including some key baskets in Creighton’s comeback scoring run and was the Blue Jays' leading scorer. Lance Jones had 14 points as well and was Southern Illinois's leading scorer in the loss.
Colorado defeated Brown in a defensive game, 54-52, to take home fourth place in the tournament.
Colorado trailed 30-24 at halftime before mounting a second-half comeback effort. They were down 37-30 with about fourteen minutes left in the game before going on a 9-0 scoring run that put them ahead 39-37 with just over eleven minutes left in the game.
Colorado's Evan Battey put the Buffaloes ahead 51-50 with 1:05 seconds remaining in the game. The defense came up with a stop on the next possession and Keeshawn Barthelemy made a jump shot for Colorado that gave them a 53-50 advantage with 32 seconds left in the game.
Brown’s Paxson Wojcik made two free throws with 2.8 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to one. Barthelemy was fouled by Brown and made one of his two free throw attempts. The rebound on the miss was controlled by Brown’s Tamenang Choh but his shot attempt from behind half court missed at the final buzzer.
Battey was the game’s leading scorer with 16 points and Wojcik led Brown in scoring with 14 points.
Duquesne placed seventh in the tournament as they defeated Bradley 78-70 on Monday.
They held a 16-point lead with 13 minutes left in the game and held off a strong comeback attempt from Bradley.
Bradley got within one possession with about one and half minutes remaining in the game but a strong free throw shooting down the stretch secured the victory for Duquesne.
Leon Ayers had a game-high 23 points for Duquesne and Terry Roberts led Bradley in scoring with 17 points in the loss.
All Tournament Team
MVP: David Roddy, Colorado State
Isaiah Stevens, Colorado State
Shaquille Walters, Northeastern
Ryan Nembhard, Creighton
Lance Jones, Southern Illinois
Evan Battey, Colorado
The women's edition of the Paradise Jam will take place from Nov. 25-27 at the UVI Sports and Fitness Center.
