The Skyhawk men’s basketball team recently wrapped up their performance in the Cancun Challenge, a four-game series that featured two games south-of-the-border in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, Nov. 26-27.
UTM travelled to Mexico following their first two matchups in the U.S., which were losses of 62-103 to Wichita State Nov. 16 and 67-87 to Northern Iowa Nov. 19.
The Skyhawks fared better when they travelled to Mexico, putting up a 1-1 record. UTM’s first opponent was Gardner-Webb (GWU) out of Boiling Springs, North Carolina, who was 0-3 on the season heading into the Challenge.
For game one in Mexico, the Skyhawks started sophomore guard Parker Stewart, senior forward Quintin Dove, senior guards Derek Hawthorne Jr. and Craig Randall II and junior forward Miles Thomas.
The Skyhawks came out to a solid start in the first half, shooting 51.72% on field goals, 46.67% on three-pointers and 71.43% on free throws. Stewart led the team in first-half offensive production, putting up 17 points in 18 minutes of play, only being outdone by GWU point guard Jaheam Cornwall (18 points).
Dove and Hawethorne followed suit with 10 and seven points, respectively, in the first half. However, the Skyhawks’ offense proved to be unbalanced, as the rest of the team put up only eight points.
Despite the lopsided production, the Skyhawks held a lead at halftime by a 42-36 margin. Defensively, the Skyhawks held GWU in check with a combined eight defensive rebounds and three steals.
GWU turned the tables in the second half of play, putting up 45 points on UTM and stonewalling the Skyhawks with 17 defensive rebounds. UTM was held to only 22 points in the second half.
Stewart and Dove scored only a combined 16 points as opposed to 27 in the first half. The rest of the team only managed to put up six points in support of the top-two scorers.
Missed field goals and three-pointers came back to hurt the Skyhawks. Out of a combined 13 field goal attempts by Stewart and Dove, only four were successful. Hawthorne and Randall both went 1-6 on their field goals.
The only UTM player to score a three-pointer in the second half was Stewart, who went 1-4. The rest of the team put up 11 three-point attempts, but none were successful, resulting in a substantial drop from the first half (46.67% to 6.25%).
Ultimately, the Skyhawks dropped the matchup 64-84, dropping to 0-3 in the Challenge.
The Skyhawks rolled out a couple of new faces in the starting lineup in their last match of the Challenge against Boston University (BU). Freshman guard Eman Sertovic and freshman center Eric Rustin replaced Randall and Thomas on the starting lineup, though both previous starters still logged minutes in the first half.
Despite not starting, Randall was red-hot in the first half, leading the team with 20 points along with three rebounds. Randall alone contributed nearly half of UTM’s offensive production in the first half, with the second leading scorers, Hawthorne and Stewart, only putting up five points each.
The Terriers kept pace with the Skyhawks throughout the half, only trailing by a narrow 40-41 deficit going into halftime. BU was deadly on free throws, nailing all nine of them to go along with a respectable field goal percentage of 52%.
UTM’s offense shifted gears in the next half. Randall, despite playing 14 minutes, had less offensive opportunities and only put up five points. Dove, however, picked up the pace and put 16 points on the board. On the defensive side of the ball, Dove also showed up big, posting four defensive rebounds and a steal.
UTM’s second-half three-point woes continued against BU, only making 14.3% of three-point attempts. However, the Skyhawks countered that statistic with a solid free throw percentage of 88.9%.
The Skyhawks managed to squeak past the Terriers 76-73 to close out their stint in Mexico.
After the conclusion of the Challenge, Dove was named to the All-Tournament team. The six-foot-eight-inch 210 pound forward averaged 19 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in Mexico while averaging 15.8 points and 6.3 rebounds in all four games, according to Sports Information.
The men’s basketball squad will resume regular season play Dec. 6 against Central Michigan in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.
Photo Credits / Sports Information
