LAHAINA, Hawaii — Justice Sueing Jr. picked a great time to unleash the finest game of his six-year college career.

Playing with his family in the Lahaina Civic Center stands, the Honolulu native and former Maryknoll School standout put Ohio State on his back, then hauled the Buckeyes to the finish line of an 80-73 win over No. 21 Texas Tech in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational fifth-place game on Wednesday morning.

Sueing shook off shooting struggles over the first two days of the tournament to score a career-high 33 points. He drove from the left wing for a dunk on the Buckeyes’ first possession and never looked back, shooting 12-for-19 from the field and 8-for-8 from the line.

“It definitely set a tone for us,” Sueing said of the opening slam. “We wanted to come into this game being aggressive knowing that Texas Tech — they’re a really defensive-minded team. We wanted to be aggressive and not let them dictate how we play.”

He added two more slams, one late in each half. The latter was a leak-out against the Red Raiders’ full-court press with a minute left for a seven-point lead to help seal the outcome.

For good measure, he grabbed eight rebounds, dealt five assists against one turnover and got two steals.

Ohio State (5-1) finished the Maui Invitational with a 2-1 mark while Texas Tech (4-2) was 1-2.

Wednesday would’ve been a remarkable performance for any player, but the 6-foot-6, 210-pound Sueing was coming off two games on Maui in which he struggled mightily to shoot the ball. He shot 4-for-13 for 11 points in a win over Cincinnati on Tuesday and 3-for-11 for six points in a loss to No. 17 San Diego State on Monday.

He missed all but two games last season with an abdominal injury. Some lingering recovery issues were on his mind this week, he acknowledged.

Sueing, whose father is the former University of Hawaii standout of the same name, acknowledged it’s been a lengthy road to get to this week.

“It was as much of a mental battle as it was a physical battle getting healthy,” Sueing said. “It was the toughest time I've had to go through in my career, but at the same time, I thank God for it because it's allowed me to grow in a lot of areas that I might not have been as strong in before mentally.

“Also, it just shows how persistent I am that when I have something in mind, when I have this goal and this game that I love, I'm going to continue to work for it and get to where I need to be at,” he added.

Teammate Zed Key, who scored nine, said the performance proved that people should back off of criticizing Sueing’s slow start in his home state.

“Justice had a dazzling performance,” Key said. “He's vital for this team. He's an older guy. He's a leader.”

Sueing’s standout effort was the difference in a game that was otherwise very close statistically. OSU shot 51.9% from the field and was 18-for-18 on free throws. TTU was nearly as efficient, with 50.9% shooting and a 12-for-13 effort at the line.

OSU coach Chris Holtmann was waiting for this kind of performance from him, both in terms of shot selection and ball control.

“I wanted him to see a few shots fall because he’s a better shooter than how he’s shot it, and I think he needed that,” Holtmann said. “He’s a much better shooter — his numbers showed that — than what he’s shown.”

Sueing leaves Maui in contrast with his previous showing in the tournament with a different team.

After a couple of years at Maryknoll School in Honolulu, Sueing finished his prep career at Mater Dei High in Southern California. He went to Cal to start his college career and got playing time in the Golden Bears’ appearance in the 2017 Maui Invitational.

But the Bears went 0-3, including a blowout loss to Chaminade in the seventh-place game.

“Yeah, coming (out of) here it feels a little bit different, but still all the same,” Sueing said.

“It's a great tournament. It's a challenge. That's what we said coming into this, that we were going to get three really good games, and that's what we got.”

His previous best in a Buckeye uniform was 22 in the Big Ten championship game in 2020-21. He scored 27 on a couple of occasions with Cal over his first two college seasons prior to transferring out in 2019-20.

OSU, making its fourth all-time Maui appearance, has never won the event but has finished 2-1 in all of its showings.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com