Despite jumping out to a halftime lead, the Skyhawks were unable to contain the East Tennessee State University (ETSU) Buccaneers 75-92.
Senior forward Quinton Dove paved the way for the Skyhawks on the offensive side of the ball. In his 39 minutes of play, the most of any player in the game, Dove put up 25 points on the Buccaneers, going 8-16 on field goals and 9-13 on free throws, but failing on two three-pointers.
Senior guard Craig Randall II also ate up several minutes of gameplay, putting up 17 points and two steals in 35 minutes, the second most on the team.
UTM’s most efficient shooter was freshman guard Eman Sertovic, who was perfect on all of his shooting attempts, going 3-3 on field goals and three-pointers in only eight minutes of play.
Senior guard Derek Hawthorne Jr., alongside Dove and Randall, also put up double-digit points (15) to go along with six offensive rebounds and an assist.
Dove provided UTM the first nine of 11 points of the game, tying up the game later in the first half with a three-point play, according to Sports Information.
The Buccaneers would later go on to take a 32-24 lead late in the first half, but the Skyhawks flipped the momentum around following a couple of three-pointers by Randall. Hawthorne, Dove and sophomore guard Parker Stewart all contributed in a 14-2 run that put UTM back on top.
The Skyhawks went into halftime with a 42-39 lead. Dove led all scorers with 17 points going into the game’s second half as the team as a whole forced the Buccaneers to turn the ball over 11 times.
ETSU came out red-hot at the start of the second half, scoring the first 10 points of the half. The Skyhawks managed to keep their deficit small but the Buccaneers continued their offensive surge and put the Skyhawks too far behind.
UTM’s offensive stats noticeably dipped in the second half. The team’s field goal percentage dropped by 4.18%, their three-point percentage dropped by 6.66% and their free throw percentage dropped from 100% to 37.50%.
ETSU improved their field goal, three-point and free throw percentages going into the second half.
The Skyhawks will kick off the start of a string of away games streak starting on Nov. 13 when they square off against Western Illinois.
