Texas State Men’s Basketball Claims Rainbow Classic

HONOLULU – The Texas State men’s basketball team took care of business on the court and closed and the Outrigger Resorts Rainbow Classic with an 86-58 victory over SIU-Edwardsville Monday evening. The Bobcats had to wait until early Tuesday morning to find out they would take home the outright tournament title.

Hawaii came out victorious against Florida Atlantic to set up a three-way tie between Texas State, the Cougars and the Rainbow Warriors. With the three teams combining to go 1-1 against each other, the champion was decided by the second tiebreaker, least points allowed.

The Bobcats allowed 190 points in their three games and needed the Owls to score at least 53 points against Hawaii in the tournament finale to be declared championships. FAU took care of business, scoring 63 points against the Rainbow Warriors.

With the title, Texas State became the fourth Lone Star State program to win the Rainbow Classic. The Bobcats are the first to do so since SMU in 1983. Other Lone Star title holders are Houston (1967) and Rice (1981).

Senior Kavin Gilder-Tilbury and freshman Nijal Pearson were named to the all-tournament team with Gilder-Tilbury taking home the Most Outstanding Player award.

Gilder-Tilbury lead all players with 20 points per game as he made 21-of-37 shots and was 9-for-18 on three-point attempts. He also averaged 8.0 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.3 steals per game. The Hawaii-born senior closed out the tournament with his first career double-double of 23 points and a career-high 12 rebounds against SIU-Edwardsville.

Pearson paced the Bobcats with a 61.8 field goal percentage as he made 21-of-34 shots. He averaged 18.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 2.3 apg and 1.7 spg. The Houston native recorded his first career 20-point game with 22 points against the Cougars in the final game of the tournament for Texas State.

Joining the duo on the all-tournament team were Hawaii’s Noah Allen and Sheriff Drammeh, Florida Atlantic’s Ronald Delph and SIUE’s Tre Harris.

The Bobcats open up their home schedule in Strahan Coliseum on Monday against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 7 p.m.

For the latest on Texas State men’s basketball, visit the official website of Texas State athletics at www.txstatebobcats.com, follow the team on Twitter at @TxStateMBB, Instagram at @TxStateMBB and like on Facebook at /TexasStateMensBasketball.