CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – A program record for Ohio Valley Conference road victories was established today as the University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball squad claimed an 82-72 win at Southeast Missouri.
The victory this afternoon was the seventh of the season for the Skyhawks, which passed the 2008-09 and 2007-08 UT Martin teams for the most in school history. Today’s win also matched the program’s win total from a year ago and moved the Skyhawks (19-10) in a tie for first place in the OVC alongside Morehead State and Little Rock at 12-4. UT Martin’s fifth straight victory also marked the longest in head coach Ryan Ridder’s three-year tenure.
Jacob Crews muscled up for his ninth double-double of the season today, tallying a game-high 31 points (on 10-of-16 shooting and an 8-for-8 effort from the free throw line) and 11 rebounds. It was the third 30-plus point outing of the season – all coming in the last dozen OVC contests – for the junior from Hilliard, Fla.
Jordan Sears overcame a tough shooting day to still end with 22 points, making 14 of his 16 attempts from the free throw line. Issa Muhammad was responsible for his eighth double-double of the 2023-24 campaign with 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Skyhawks, who led for 33:58 of clock time but had to hold off a pesky Redhawk squad with an 8-2 run over the final 71 seconds.
Southeast Missouri (8-21, 3-13 OVC) was led by 17 points off the bench from Rob Martin. Evan Eursher scored 15 points while Braxton Stacker added 11 points for the Redhawks, who were held to 35.1 percent shooting (26-of-74) and 34.8 percent (7-for-29) from three-point land.
“We struggled a little bit out the gate but give our guys credit – they are finding ways to win basketball games every night,” Ridder said. “We have a special group and I’m really excited for where this thing is going but we have a lot of work ahead. We’re going to get some rest and sign up for one heck of a week of UT Martin basketball for these last two home games.”
The Skyhawks faced an early 4-0 deficit but a pair of Crews three-pointers occurred before a 13-0 UT Martin run. Muhammad contributed nine of those 13 points en route to a 20-9 Skyhawk advantage with 10:37 to go in the first half.
Crews scored 14 of UT Martin’s final 19 points before the halftime break to help the Skyhawks take a 41-30 edge at the intermission. Crews tallied 20 points in the first half while Martin posted seven points to guide Southeast Missouri.
After the Redhawks scored on their opening possession of the second half, Sears and Crews swished back-to-back three-pointers. Sears followed with a driving layup to give the Skyhawks their biggest lead of the day (49-32) with 18:10 remaining.
Southeast Missouri got back within single digits coming out of the under-14-minute media timeout and eventually trimmed UT Martin’s lead down to two points with seven minutes left to play. Sears canned a pair of free throws before Mendoza drained a big trey to push the Skyhawk advantage back out to 67-60 at the 5:37 mark.
UT Martin’s lead stood at four points with 1:12 to go before Sears knocked down six consecutive free throws – capping off a remarkable 30-for-35 night from the charity stripe for the Skyhawks. Crews put an exclamation point on the win with a thunderous dunk with 13 seconds left.
UT Martin wraps up the regular season this week at home, starting with a Thursday, Feb. 29 contest against Tennessee Tech. Tipoff from the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
