Despite a sluggish first three quarters of action, the Skyhawks rallied by junior forward Chelsey Perry in the fourth to storm back and win 65-61 over conference opponent Austin Peay (APSU).
UTM’s starting lineup consisted of Perry, sophomore forward Brittini Moore, junior forward Dasia Young, freshman forward Demi Burdick and sophomore guard Kyannah Grant.
Usual for this season, Perry led the Skyhawks in points, netting 25 in 37 minutes of play. Perry’s contributions extended to the defensive side of the ball, where she also excelled and played a major role.
Not only did Perry lead the team in rebounds with 12, all of her rebounds were defensive. To go along with that, the junior forward led the team in blocks with seven, and went a perfect 8-8 on free throw attempts.
The Skyhawks had four players score 9+ points on the evening. In addition, UTM controlled the rebound game by putting up 41 total rebounds to APSU’s 21, but the first three quarters of the game paint a very different picture of the Skyhawks.
UTM was limited to only 25 points in the first half of the match. Even Perry had a hard time producing offensively, only scoring six points. This wasn’t helped by the team’s woeful shooting percentages.
In the first three quarters, UTM averaged 27.3% on their field goals, with their worst coming in the first quarter (20%). The Skyhawks strayed away from three-point attempts in the first quarter, only attempting (and missing) one. The next quarter had UTM going 1-6 on three-point attempts, averaging 16.67%.
One bright spot for the Skyhawks was their third quarter free-throw shooting percentage, which was a perfect 100% over 14 attempts.
The Skyhawks offensive troubles were on display early, as UTM didn’t get on the scoreboard 6:55 of the first quarter. By that point, UTM was already down by seven. This deficit increased by the end of the first quarter, which had the Skyhawks trailing 19-10.
The lead remained elusive for UTM, who trailed 33-25 at the end of the second 33-35 and 51-43 at the end of the third.
The fourth quarter is where the Skyhawks really came alive. UTM rode the momentum of a 15-1 run to finally take the lead away from the Governors. Of the 15 points scored, 13 came from Perry.
The fourth quarter saw a resurgence in shooting percentages, improving to 56.25% on field goals and 25% on three-point attempts.
The Governors were limited to just 25 points in the second half and had no double-digit scorers. Meanwhile, UTM scored 40 points in the third and fourth quarters, nearly doubling the number of points scored in the first half. Perry accounted for 19 of those points.
“There aren’t many good adjectives to describe this game,” head coach Kevin McMillan said, according to Sports Information. “Did the game have a lot of flow? No. Was it a finesse game? No. Did we play well? No. The thing about it was that they figured out a way to gut it out. At the end of the day, that’s it. They just found a way and I give them credit for that. I think our defense was huge because offensively, we just weren’t very good. At the end of the day when it came down to us having to play hard, the defensive end made the difference.”
“We had a rough start but we have to come together and get focused,” Perry said in a postgame press conference. “We had a lot out, Maddie’s out, so we just had to come together…I just wanted to step up and push myself to be a better teammate and for me being a better leader, its me being a better teammate.”
UTM now improves to 10-7 overall on the season to go along with a perfect 6-0 OVC record. The women’s basketball team will resume play on Jan. 23 against Eastern Illinois in Charleston, Illinois.
Photo Credit / Sports Information
