This year’s tropical night was on Feb. 8, 2025. SMSU men’s and women’s basketball teams took on the Winona State Warriors.
The gym was packed with students. You could feel the energy in the gym for both games, especially the first game. The first game was the men’s game, SMSU came out wearing their gold uniforms. It was an up and down game with SMSU and Winona State. There were some calls in the first half of the game that did not go SMSU’s way and the crowd would remind the refs who was the boss.
After a controversial foul call in the first half and the crowd started chanting, “Bull Shit, Bull Shit, Bull Shit.” They also did the same thing when a block by Mason Lund was called a foul in the second half. And the crowd chanted the same thing as they did in the first half. The second game was a different story for the women’s game.
Some of the crowd seemed to leave after the boys game. Although the crowd was less boisterous in the second game there still was plenty of energy in the crowd.
The crowd was energetic and excited dressed in their Hawaiian gear, but one student was doing more. The director assigned the camera man to get shots of that student. They were going to make a highlight reel of him celebrating. He was celebrating throughout the fourth quarter because it was a successful women’s game.
The men’s game was an up and down fast paced game. The Mustangs lead by 5 at the half 30-25. The Coach for Winona State seemed to not have a voice after the first half. In the second half it was a different story. Winona State was trying to ignore the crowd during the game and Winona State kept it close to the end.
The Winona players said to each other, “we got this” and “it’s our time.” All that confidence turned out to be true as they were able to pull away with the upset against SMSU for the first part of tropical night. SMSU was stunned at home with a 66-59 loss, and they will have to figure it out quickly before Tuesday. The Women’s game was a different story.
The Men’s game was competitive for both halves of the game, but the women’s game was only competitive for three quarters of the game. The buzzer beater at the end of the third quarter by Kenzie Jones helped propel the Mustangs to the fourth quarter and pull away.
In the final quarter they were able to put in the future of the mustangs with a lot of their players who don’t get to see the court. The women were able to win by 22 points with a final score of 76-54.
What a good way to end a tropical night 2025.Tropical night 2025 was a great edition as the men’s team had a close loss, but the women had a blowout win. Many students enjoyed this tropical night. It was a great night.
