The UTM women’s basketball team used a balanced offensive attack and stringy defensive effort to soar past Tennessee Tech and into the title game of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) Basketball Championship with a 69-56 semifinal win on Friday afternoon.
The Skyhawks (20-4) punched their ticket to the team’s fourth straight title game appearance after an impressive shooting day where the team knocked down 54.2 percent of its attempts from the field and 44.4 percent of its attempts from beyond the arc. Then on the defensive end, the team’s stingy defense held the potent Golden Eagles offense to just 35.4 percent from the field.
With the win, UTM registered its 11th 20-win season in program history and eighth under head coach Kevin McMillan since 2010-11. The Skyhawks also improved to 21-7 in the OVC Basketball Championship under McMillan’s reign while earning a spot in their ninth title game in 12 years.
Four different players scored in double figures for the top-seeded Skyhawks led by the play of senior forward Maddie Waldrop who just missed out on a double-double with 19 points and eight rebounds on the afternoon while also tallying three blocks. Junior Paige Pipkin tossed in 15 points and five assists while Seygan Robins (12 points) and Chelsey Perry (10 points) rounded out the quartet of double-digit scorers.
We kind of knew that it would come down to which team could guard the other one better and our kids did a good job of executing the game plan,” McMillan said. “We made some mistakes late but we kept our composure for most of the game in a hard-fought game. We are getting better but we will need everyone. The only agenda our team has is to be the best they can be and represent the people that support them and make them proud. We are trying to represent Martin, west Tennessee and our community well. Now can we go get rested up? Because if not, it will be tough.”
Tennessee Tech (15-10) struggled to find its offensive flow outside of the second quarter when it scored a game-high 21 points. In the game’s other three quarters, the Golden Eagles scored no more than 12 points and made just 9-of-33 field goal attempts in the second half. The Tech duo of Jordan Brock and Maaliya Owens would pace the squad would 12 points each.
UTM will return to action in the OVC Basketball Championship title game against #2 seed Belmont on Saturday, March 6 at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
