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TOLEDO, OH – Senior guard Rian Pearson will participate in the prestigious Portsmouth Invitational Tournament this week in Portsmouth, VA.

The renowned event features 64 of the nation’s top college basketball seniors in an eight-team, four-day tournament format from Wednesday-Saturday, April 16-19. The PIT is attended by NBA scouts and evaluators from a number of international teams.

“I am excited and humbled to participate in this invitational,” said Pearson, who will be joined by fellow Mid-American Conference players Nick Kellogg (Ohio), Javon McCrea (Buffalo) and Shayne Whittington (Western Michigan). “There are some great players on my team as well as at the entire camp. I’m going to give it my all and have fun.”

Pearson will compete for Sales Systems, Ltd., along with two-time NCAA champion Niels Giffey (Connecticut) as well as Tarik Black (Kansas), Davante Gardner (Marquette), Josh Huestis (Stanford), Tyler Johnson (Fresno State), Markel Starks (Georgetown) and David Stockton (Gonzaga).

Pearson was an all-conference and all-district honoree in each of his three seasons as Rocket and was the first UT player to receive all-league accolades on three occasions since Greg Stempin in the 1998-99, 1999-00 and 2000-01 campaigns. He also garnered MAC All-Tournament Team honors after averaging 21.0 points and 6.5 rebounds per game during the event.

As a senior, Pearson helped the Rockets to a school-record 27 victories as well as a share of the 2013-14 MAC regular-season title by averaging 14.6 ppg and 5.3 rpg and registering career bests in both field-goal percentage (47.9) and three-point field-goal percentage (42.6).

A Raytown, MO native, Pearson tied for the MAC scoring lead as a sophomore with 16.4 ppg and ranked third as a junior with 17.9 ppg.

For a full list of participants and rosters, click here._ID=18000&ATCLID=209466043

There were 8 teams of 8 that played, the 4 MAC players were all on different teams and all were starters for their teams. Pearson's team beat McCrea for the championship, Whittington beat Kellogg for 3rd place. McCrea and Whittington were named to the all-tournament team.