We use matrix models to characterize deconfinement at a nonzero temperature T for an SU (2) gauge theory in three spacetime dimensions. At one loop order, the potential for a constant vector potential A 0 is ∼ T 3 times a trilogarithm function of A 0 /T . In addition, we add various nonperturbative terms to model deconfinement. The parameters of the model are adjusted by fitting the lattice results for the pressure. The nonperturbative terms are dominated by a constant term ∼ T 2 T d , where T d is the temperature for deconfinement. Besides this constant, we add terms which are nontrivial functions of A 0 /T , both ∼ T 2 T d and ∼ T T 2 d . There is only a mild sensitivity to the details of these nonconstant terms. Overall we find a good agreement with the lattice results.For the pressure, the conformal anomaly, and the Polyakov loop the nonconstant terms are relevant only in a narrow region below ∼ 1.2 T d . We also compute the 't Hooft loop, and find that the details of the nonconstant terms enter in a much wider region, up to ∼ 4 T d .