MACOMB, Ill. – The University of Tennessee at Martin men’s hoops squad ended today’s contest on a 10-3 run to shock the Western Illinois Leathernecks in a tight 62-59 Ohio Valley Conference triumph.
In a contest where neither side led by more than six points at any point, the Skyhawks (15-10, 8-4 OVC) stayed the course and came through with clutch plays down the stretch. After trailing 56-52 with 4:58 left to play, Jordan Sears converted a tough old-fashioned three-point play to officially begin the comeback. A mid-range jumper from Koby Jeffries at the 3:35 mark gave UT Martin a lead it would not relinquish the rest of the way. A pair of Sears free throws with eight seconds to go extended the Skyhawk advantage to three points and an off-balanced last-second Leatherneck heave was wide left.
Sears played the full 40 minutes, finishing with 16 points, eight assists (against zero turnovers) and five rebounds. Issa Muhammad generated his sixth double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 rebounds while Jacob Crews (12 points) rounded out UT Martin’s double-digit scorers. Jeffries also gave the Skyhawks a valuable 26 minutes off the bench as the junior from Memphis, Tenn. compiled five points, four rebounds, three assists and a game-high three steals.
Western Illinois (15-10, 8-4 OVC) was led by Jesiah West’s 19 points while JJ Kakalon and Quinlan Bennett finished with 12 and 11 points, respectively. The Leathernecks were held to 25 percent shooting (3-of-12) from three-point land and made 53.3 percent (8-for-15) of their free throw attempts.
“That was a great response from Thursday (loss at Little Rock),” UT Martin head coach Ryan Ridder said. “I thought our guards did a heck of a job getting loose balls and making it tough on them to score around the rim. Western Illinois is a really good team and to come in here for their first ever national TV game and get a fun, collective win says a lot about our group.”
Muhammad opened the scoring on both sides with a tip-in at the 19:12 mark. That began a stretch of over 12 minutes where neither team would lead by more than two points.
Back-to-back buckets from Crews and a layup by David Kamwanga at the 4:03 mark put the Skyhawks back on top by a 20-19 margin. The Leathernecks briefly went back ahead by three points before a Muhammad dunk and a Sears layup on back-to-back possessions tilted the score back in favor of UT Martin at 24-23.
Western Illinois accounted for five straight points until a Jeffries floater in the lane whittled the Skyhawk deficit to 27-26 at the break.
Muhammad led UT Martin with six points and five rebounds while West (13 points) was responsible for nearly half of the Leatherneck points in the opening 20 minutes.
After Western Illinois began the second half with six of the first eight points, Desmond Williams splashed a three-pointer from the right wing to get the Skyhawks within two (33-31) with 17:21 remaining. However, the next two Leatherneck buckets were three-pointers as Western Illinois took a six-point advantage.
UT Martin soon went on a 10-2 surge over a stretch of 3:22, starting with a Crews triple from the left wing. A trailing three-pointer from Sears capped off the run and provided the Skyhawks with a 47-45 advantage at the 10:10 mark.
After UT Martin led by three, Western Illinois scored seven unanswered points to take its aforementioned four-point advantage with just under five minutes to play. The Skyhawks came right back with an 8-0 run of their own as part of their 10-2 surge that wrapped up the win.
For the first time in 19 days, UT Martin will be back at home when it hosts OVC rival Southern Indiana on Thursday, Feb. 15. The game will begin at 7:30 p.m. as the backend of a doubleheader with the women’s team.
