The UTM women’s basketball team overcame an 18-point deficit behind a dominant fourth quarter to rattle off the team’s seventh consecutive road victory and close out the regular season with a 69-63 win at Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) foe Eastern Illinois (EIU) on Saturday afternoon.
The Skyhawks conclude the regular season with an overall record of 18-4 while polishing off their OVC championship campaign with a 17-2 mark – setting a new school record for league victories with 17 – and will enter next week’s OVC Basketball Championship as the No. 1 seed. The win also marked the seventh consecutive road victory for the Skyhawks, ranking as the longest streak since the 2014-15 campaign.
After trailing by as much as 18 points in the first half, UTM chipped away down the stretch before completely flipping the script in the fourth quarter. While the Panthers shot 47.6 percent for the first three quarters, the Skyhawks were suffocating on the defensive end in the fourth quarter, limiting EIU to just four points and 12.5 percent from the floor. Along with the team’s defensive prowess, the Skyhawks kept their offensive stroke going, finishing the game shooting 58.5 percent from the floor and outscoring the home team by 15 in the fourth en route to a thrilling comeback victory.
Posting a new career-high offensively was sophomore Dasia Young who was nearly perfect from the field, scoring 30 points on 12-of-13 field goal attempts. The game marked the ninth straight game in double figures for Young and first 30-point outing of her career. She was joined in double figures by junior Paige Pipkin who chipped in 17 points for her sixth double-digit scoring performance this season.
“I didn’t think we played very well at all and we looked really out of sync in the first half,” UTM head coach Kevin McMillan said. “We basically let them do anything they wanted on the offensive end and had too many silly turnovers on the offensive end. We just haven’t been able to come out and make a statement early lately. I give our kids credit though because they came out in the second half, got some stops in the fourth quarter, made shots and found a way to win.”
EIU (11-14, 9-11 OVC) got off to a hot start on Senior Day by shooting 53.1 percent in the first half and scoring 45 points. Senior Karle Pace was nearly unstoppable early, scoring 14 of her 16 points in the first half while sophomore Lariah Washington finished with a team-high 17 points.
The Panthers jumped out to an early lead in the contest with a margin as large as 16 points in the opening quarter. EIU’s lead would grow to as much as 18 points in the second before the Skyhawks chipped away little by little to get the score within single digits heading into halftime.
UTM would trim the deficit down to three points in the third but Eastern Illinois answered to push the margin back out to nine points at the end of the third quarter. With just 10 minutes to play in the contest, the Skyhawks turned up the intensity on both ends in the fourth quarter. The Skyhawks opened the fourth on a 6-0 run before ultimately taking their first lead since the opening possession of the game with 1:48 to play in the contest on a layup by Young. With the lead in hand, UTM would not let up, pushing the margin out to six points and to victory.
The Skyhawks will now turn their focus to preparation for the OVC Basketball Championship next week in Evansville, Indiana. UTM will enter the tournament field as the No. 1 seed and will open the bracket on Wednesday, March 3 against No. 8 seed Eastern Illinois in a familiar rematch. Tipoff from the Ford Center is scheduled for 1 p.m.
