MARTIN, Tenn. – Led by outstanding performances by University of Tennessee at Martin stars Jacob Crews, Issa Muhammad and Jordan Sears, the Skyhawk men’s basketball squad posted their sixth win in the last seven tries with a 77-68 victory over Southern Indiana tonight.
Crews pumped in 28 of his game-high 32 points in the second half, also sinking all six of his three-pointers (in just eight attempts) over the final 20 minutes. Muhammad put together another monster performance with 14 points, a career-best 20 rebounds and three blocks to become the first UT Martin player since Quintin Dove (against SIUE on Feb. 27, 2020) to haul in at least 20 boards. Meanwhile, Sears flirted with a triple-double (19 points, career-best eight rebounds, game-high seven assists) and joined elite company this evening as the junior guard and two-time All-American Lester Hudson are the only players in school history to reach at least 500 points and 100 assists in a single season.
UT Martin improved to 16-10 with a 9-4 mark in Ohio Valley Conference play after winning the rebounding battle by a 51-37 margin. The Skyhawks overcame a 29-28 halftime deficit and at one point led by as many as 16 points in the second half in their first outing inside the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center in nearly three weeks.
Jeremiah Hernandez scored 25 points to lead the Screaming Eagles (7-19, 4-9 OVC) while AJ Smith and Ryan Hall tossed in 17 and 11 points, respectively. Southern Indiana was held to 37.5 percent (27-for-72) shooting and made just six of its 29 tries from three-point land (20.7 percent).
“Our message at halftime was to not panic,” UT Martin head coach Ryan Ridder said. “We couldn’t throw it in the ocean in the first half – we got a little stagnant against their zone and you could see some frustration out there when the shots weren’t going down. But what this team does well is respond – we didn’t worry, we just know it’s going to work out because of our habits. We have a really tied-in and collective group right now that believes every time that we strap it on that we’re going to win.”
The Screaming Eagles scored seven of the first nine points of the ballgame but the Skyhawks responded with 13 unanswered points, capped off by a Koby Jeffries driving layup that gave UT Martin a 15-7 advantage at the 11:46 mark.
A Muhammad mid-range jumpshot with 7:31 left to play in the first half kept the Skyhawks on top by seven points but Southern Indiana went on a 10-0 run to lead for the remainder of the opening half. Sears scored UT Martin’s final six points of the half – including a trey with 22 seconds to go which trimmed the Skyhawk deficit to one at the intermission.
Sears’ eight points topped UT Martin at the break while Hernandez contributed 14 points for the Screaming Eagles.
After Sears (three-pointer) and Muhammad (pullup jumper) helped the Skyhawks even the score at all 33-all, Crews had the scorching hot hand. The junior from Hilliard, Fla. was responsible for 18 of the next 24 points over a stretch of 6:34. His final bucket during that surge – a trifecta with 8:48 left to play – ballooned the UT Martin lead out to 57-45.
Muhammad followed with four consecutive Skyhawk points as UT Martin extended its lead all the way out to 14 points (63-49) with 6:25 remaining.
Southern Indiana went on a 7-0 run over the next 70 seconds to get within seven points but the Skyhawks responded with nine straight points of their own. A driving layup by Sears at the 1:47 mark gave UT Martin its biggest advantage of the night (72-56) to help the Skyhawks move to 9-2 at home in 2023-24.
UT Martin hosts league-leading Morehead State on Saturday, Feb. 17 in a “Code Orange” contest. Tipoff is set for 3:30 p.m., following the women’s basketball game that begins at 1 p.m.
