By Ryne Rickman, UT Martin Sports Information Director
MURRAY, Ky. – It was a steady grind this evening as the University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball squad competed throughout but came up just short in a 74-66 decision against Ohio Valley Conference-leading Murray State at the CFSB Center.
The Skyhawk defense elevated their game tonight, limiting a Racer squad that ranked in the top-15 nationally in field goal percentage and three-point field goal percentage to 35.4 percent (23-of-65) shooting – including a 11.1 percent (3-for-27) effort from three-point range. UT Martin snared 45 rebounds – its most against a NCAA Division I opponent this season – and outscored Murray State in the paint by a 38-36 margin but the Racers went 25-of-33 from the free throw line.
Bernie Andre corralled the 12th double-double of his collegiate career (first in a Skyhawk uniform) with 17 point and 11 rebounds off the bench to pace UT Martin, who is now 6-13 with a 2-5 OVC record. KJ Simon pumped in 16 points and seven rebounds while KK Curry rounded out the Skyhawk double-digit scorers with 10 points and a game-high two blocks.
Receiving votes in this week’s Coaches Poll, Murray State improved to 17-2 and 7-0 in OVC play thanks to double-doubles out of KJ Williams (33 points, 15 rebounds) and Tevin Brown (10 points, 10 rebounds). Justice Hill also scored all 13 points of his points in the second half as UT Martin held the Racers’ three starting guards to 6-of-36 from the field this evening.
“I’m proud of our effort – I thought our guys battled and were resilient,” Skyhawk head coach Ryan Ridder said. “Murray State is a very, very good basketball team that has beat some people really badly in this building. In your first year, you want to get guys who are going to put on that jersey and play their tails off for you and I think we did that tonight and we’ve done that for the most part this year. I have no doubt that results are coming for this group by the way they go about their business. We didn’t get the win tonight but we strapped it up and looked like a basketball team that’s hungry to get better.”
The Racers scored the first five points of the game before Curry got UT Martin on the scoreboard with a pair of free throws at the 17:54 mark. After Murray State took a 14-7 lead, Josh Endicott and Andre each converted second-chance layups to trim the Skyhawk deficit to a one-possession game midway through the first half.
Following an 8-0 Racer surge, UT Martin responded right back with an extended run of its own – outscoring Murray State by a 16-4 margin over a stretch of 4:14. A trailing three-pointer from Andre and dunk on a baseline drive from Curry gave the Skyhawks some momentum before a Mikel Henderson trifecta with 3:30 to play in the first half resulted in UT Martin’s first lead of the contest at 27-26.
The Racers produced six of the next seven points to reclaim the lead but a pair of Simon free throws with four seconds remaining put the Skyhawks within striking distance (32-29) at the half.
Simon’s eight points guided UT Martin while Williams had 20 points in the first 20 minutes, accounting for nine of Murray State’s 12 made field goals.
Each of the Skyhawks’ first three buckets of the second half were layups as UT Martin trailed by just one point at 36-35 at the 17:44 mark.
The Racers scored 11 unanswered points and eventually led by as many as 17 points but the Skyhawks kept scrapping. UT Martin produced a 9-0 run in less than two minutes as four different Skyhawks (Curry layup, Henderson three-pointer, Andre layup, Simon layup) contributed points in that span.
A pair of late David Kamwanga buckets and a second-chance layup from Curry whittled UT Martin’s deficit all the way down to six points at 72-66 but time ran out on the Skyhawk comeback attempt.
UT Martin’s next contest is a rescheduled game against SIUE that was postponed last month. Tipoff from the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center is set for 7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 24.
Graphic courtesy of UT Martin Sports Information