The UTM women’s basketball team posted a balanced scoring attack on Thursday evening to push past Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) foe Eastern Kentucky (EKU) with a 65-50 road victory.
The Skyhawks (12-8, 8-1 OVC) overcame a sluggish start in the first quarter by stringing together a 24-3 run heading into halftime. With a 15-point advantage at the break and both teams playing even in the second, the visitors would score the team’s fourth road victory of the season.
Despite a poor shooting night, UTM would get it done on the defensive end by forcing 20 turnovers on 13 steals while commanding the battle of the boards. With the win, the Skyhawks finish the month of January by winning eight of their nine contests.
Junior forward Chelsey Perry paced the team with 15 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, three steals and three blocks to tally her ninth career double-double. Freshman Dasia Young scored in double figures for the second straight game with 12 points while junior Maddie Waldrop just missed a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds. As a whole, six different players scored at least five points for the Skyhawks.
“Tonight was a disappointing game,” UTM head coach Kevin McMillan said. “We came out flat and then really cranked it up defensively while making a big run. The frustrating thing is once we got the lead, we just quit and didn’t try to build on it. Everything positive we did in the second quarter went away in the second half. The reason that bothers me so much is the question I have to ask our team. Are we trying to win a championship or just have fun? Today looked like we were playing an AAU game and it was just really ugly. I just want us to be playing our best and even though we won, tonight wasn’t our best.”
Eastern Kentucky (8-12, 2-7 OVC) saw balance on the scoring leaderboard but lacked the go-to scorer as Bria Bass paced the team with 11 points off the bench.
UTM will wrap up its four-game road trip with a matchup at Morehead State on Saturday, Feb. 1.
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