The Bay Area’s three men’s NIT teams were all knocked out of the tournament on Sunday in home losses by a combined eight points.
Stanford comeback falls short against Kent State
Stanford fell into a double-digit hole in the first half at Maples Pavilion and, after battling back to take a lead, fell to Kent State 77-75.
The Cardinal’s top performers were seniors Maxime Raynaud (22 points, 10 rebounds, four blocks) and Jaylen Blakes (23 points, five assists), who played their final games for Stanford.
Blakes led a first-half rally to cut a 12-point deficit to one, but Kent State responded and stretched its lead to 43-34 at the half. With 15 minutes left, Stanford took its first lead since the game’s opening minutes as Raynaud made a jumper, but Kent State again hit back with a run led by Jalen Sullinger, who finished with 34 points. The Golden Flashes led by 11 with six minutes left and held off several charges by the Cardinal.
Stanford finishes its first season under Kyle Smith at 21-14, its most wins in a decade.
Santa Clara can’t beat UAB
Carlos Stewart Jr.’s 3-pointer to tie the game in the final seconds rimmed out, and Santa Clara fell at home to Alabama-Birmingham 88-84 after leading by 17 points early in the second half.
Christoph Tilly and Elijah Mahi led a 15-5 SCU run out of the halftime break that pushed the lead to 59-42 before the Blazers came storming back, making nine of 10 shot attempts over four minutes to tighten the game to 65-63. After the Broncos settled back in, UAB went on an 8-1 run that gave the Blazers the lead for good.
Stewart led the Broncos with 19 points as Christoph Tilly added 17 points and 12 rebounds, while the Blazers were led by Yaxel Lendeborg’s 22-point, 11-rebound performance.
Santa Clara went 21-13 on the season.
USF drops back-and-forth game to Loyola-Chicago
San Francisco lost to Loyola-Chicago 77-76 in a game that featured 14 lead changes and eight ties, mostly down the stretch. Malik Thomas scored a career-high 36 for the top-seeded Dons, including making all 17 of his free-throw attempts, but Loyola’s Jayden Dawson nearly matched him with 35 points of his own.
USF trailed by 13 points in the first half before ending the half on a 17-8 run to close within 36-32 at the break. Thomas scored 24 points after halftime, including a 3 from the top of the key with 1:17 left to give the Dons a one-point lead, but Dawson made a layup to retake the lead with just under a minute left.
Thomas’ reverse layup in the final seconds missed, and Jason Rivera-Torres’ putback attempt was after the buzzer sounded.
The Dons finish the year 25-10 after suffering just their second loss at War Memorial Gym.
Loyola-Chicago will play Kent State Wednesday in a quarterfinal game, while UAB faces UC Irvine.