CHICAGO, Ill. – A dominant second half for the University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball squad helped the Skyhawks post their biggest margin of victory in a road contest since Feb. 1, 2017 in a 94-71 win at Chicago State.
The 23-point triumph is the largest road victory for UT Martin since a 75-46 win at Tennessee Tech during the 2016-17 slate. As a result, the Skyhawks are off to their first 5-2 start to a season since the same 2016-17 campaign.
UT Martin led by five points at the halftime break but broke the game open by shooting 62.5 percent (20-of-32) over the final 20 minutes. The Skyhawks also held a commanding 47-29 edge in the rebounding battle, leading the contest for 34:48 of clock time.
The UT Martin duo of Jordan Sears and Jacob Crews led the way today, combining for a 73.9 shooting percentage and a 72.7 percent performance from three-point land. Sears tossed in 20 of his game-high 27 points in the first half, ending his day with an 8-of-11 shooting performance (4-of-6 from three-point range). Crews connected on nine of his 12 field goal tries (including 4-for-5 from deep) on the way to 25 points and a game-high eight rebounds.
Chicago State (2-6) was led by 26 points from Wesley Cardet, Jr. The Cougars also received 15 points out of Kedrick Green but shot just 37.7 percent (26-for-69) for the game, including a 28.9 percent clip (11-of-38) from beyond the three-point arc.
“We found a way to play really well together for the full 40 minutes,” Skyhawk head coach Ryan Ridder said. “We have quality players up and down this roster – everybody deserves to play and they make it tough on us as coaches. But that’s a fun thing. We’re only seven games in but we’re starting to gel – today I think we saw a little bit of what the future can hold. Good teams find a way to win on the road.”
Sears was unstoppable early as his old-fashioned three-point play got the scoring started for UT Martin. By the 11:04 mark, the junior guard from Daytona Beach, Fla. had canned four treys and was up to 15 points – outscoring Chicago State by himself – as the Skyhawks claimed a 20-14 advantage.
The Cougars evened the score at 22-all before a Desmond Williams three-pointer keyed a 7-0 UT Martin run. Chicago State followed with eight unanswered points to briefly take a lead before the Skyhawks wrapped up the half with an 8-0 run of its own – bookended by six points out of Crews on an old-fashioned three-point play and a deep trey that made the score 40-35 in favor of UT Martin.
Quick buckets from Issa Muhammad and Sears within the first 51 seconds of the second half helped the Skyhawks push their lead out to 44-35. The Cougars pulled within three points but Koby Jeffries drilled a pair of three-pointers from the right wing as UT Martin opened up its first double-digit lead (57-47) of the day with just under 15 minutes remaining.
Crews recorded eight straight points in a 1:44 span – beginning his personal run with a pair of three-pointers before flying in for a putback on an offensive rebound. Moments later, KK Curry made a pair of free throws and Justus Jackson scored on a driving take to the hoop as the Skyhawks led by a 73-53 margin at the 9:26 mark.
Chicago State scored the next seven points of the contest but never got any closer than 13 points the rest of the way. A layup from David Kamwanga with 34 seconds remaining gave UT Martin its biggest lead of the day and provided the final scoring margin of 94-71.
The Skyhawks close out the month of November next week when they head to Houston, Texas to take on Rice out of the American Athletic Conference on Thursday, Nov. 30.
