Josh Goldfine, TBT Staff
DAYTON, Ohio – Redemption for Blue Collar U.
A year after being knocked out in the semi-finals by Team 23 (now known as Team Heartfire), Blue Collar U redeemed itself with a quarterfinal victory on Friday night to head back to the semi-finals.
Nick Perkins led the way with 21 points and a game-high eight rebounds, and Blue Collar U scored the game’s final 12 points to defeat Heartfire 74-66.
CJ Massinburg credited Perkins for playing a key role in the win.
“Nick was huge for us,” said Massinburg, who scored 19 points and was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line. “He’s a multi-dimensional player and a mismatch for a lot of teams.”
Massingburg, Wes Clark and Jeremy Harris each reached double figures in the win for the University of Buffalo alumni squad, which pulled down 15 offensive rebounds, took 17 more shots and scored 21 points off Heartfire turnovers.
“We owed them one,” said Perkins of the Heartfire rematch. “We’ve been thinking about it for a whole year. It was great to play against them and get a win.”
Now, Blue Collar U will get a chance to play for TBT’s $1 million prize in the semi-finals on Saturday.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Watch the Game Highlights from Heartfire vs. Blue Collar U, 07/29/2022 <a href=”https://t.co/kiFuQpmfpt”>pic.twitter.com/kiFuQpmfpt</a></p>— TBT (@thetournament) <a href=”https://twitter.com/thetournament/status/1553186812322914304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>July 30, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>