MARTIN, Tenn. – All 11 University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball players who saw playing time this evening scored as the Skyhawks piled up a season-high tally in points during a 110-52 victory over Ecclesia at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
UT Martin improved to 6-4 on the season after sinking 51.9 percent (42-for-81) of its field goal attempts. The Skyhawks outscored the visitors from the National Christian College Athletic Association by a 56-18 margin in the paint, 33-10 in fast breaks and 68-19 in bench points.
Defensively, UT Martin forced the Royals into 24 turnovers and limited the opposition to 26.4 percent (19-of-72) shooting, including a 25.8 percent (8-for-31) effort from three-point range.
Jalen Myers tallied a game-high 21 points on 7-for-9 shooting, six rebounds and a career-best five assists in just 24 minutes for the Skyhawks. Sebastian Mendoza earned his first double-double behind career-highs in points (18) and rebounds (11) in only 19 minutes while Jordan Sears posted 17 points with six assists. Desmond Williams recorded season-highs of 15 points, three assists and three steals while KK Curry’s 10 points rounded out the double-digit scorers for UT Martin.
Ecclesia (2-7) was paced by Ryan Reed’s 17 points.
“I thought we were pretty good for about 34 minutes,” Skyhawk head coach Ryan Ridder said. “Our guys sprinted back on defense and were really active in our gaps – we focused on off-ball awareness in practice this week and I thought we were really good on that side of the ball. It’s no secret that we can score the ball, we just have to keep growing defensively.”
Curry scored UT Martin’s first six points of the contest and the Skyhawks never trailed for the final 38:43. Mendoza then reeled off six consecutive UT Martin points before a Justus Jackson fast break layup at the 9:54 mark of the first half extended the Skyhawk advantage out to 25-6.
Soon thereafter, UT Martin went on a 17-0 run in a span of 4:19. Sears accounted for eight of those points as the Skyhawks took a comfortable 52-19 lead into the half.
Myers’ 11 points led all scorers in the opening half while Reed’s six points guided the Royals, who committed 16 turnovers in the first 20 minutes.
Three of UT Martin’s first four buckets in the second half came from long distance as Sears swished a pair of treys in a three-minute stretch. A fastbreak layup from Williams with 15:37 remaining stretched the Skyhawk lead out to 68-25.
Moments later, UT Martin used a 13-0 run to create more separation as Williams pumped in eight of those points.
A Myers triple with 5:38 left to play gave the Skyhawks 100 points – the third time that the program has reached triple digits on the scoreboard in 2023-24.
UT Martin goes back on the road for its next two outings, starting with a Tuesday, Dec. 12 matchup at NC State. Tipoff against the Atlantic Coast Conference member is set for 6 p.m. CT in Raleigh, NC.
