Eventually, all great sports streaks come to an end. For the UTM women’s basketball team, they saw their streak of four consecutive Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Championships come to an end at the hands of the No. 3 seed, Tennessee State.
The Skyhawks, who came into the championship game with a perfect 16-0 record and tournament wins over Eastern Illinois and Belmont, were searching for their fifth straight OVC championship and another birth to the NCAA tournament.
From the opening tip, Tennessee State showed momentum and confidence that they would be the team that would knock off a Skyhawk team who has looked near unstoppable in previous tournament trips. The Tigers took command of the lead and stretched it out to 12 points midway through the first half.
From there, UTM had to play catch-up and were successful, retaking the lead with under two minutes in the first half before Tennessee State rebounded and carried a 28-26 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Tennessee State came out firing again in the second half, but UTM was able to prevent TSU from extending their run into double digits again. The Skyhawks rebounded back and fought toe-to-toe with TSU, swapping the lead six times and tying the game seven times.
Both teams had opportunities to close the game in regulation, but were unable to get an advantage over their opponent. Tennessee State had a possession that spanned from the 2:35 mark to the :57 second mark in which the Lady Tigers were unable to convert on five shot attempts. The Skyhawks had two opportunities to take the lead, but turned the ball over on the first attempt and were unable to get a shot off at the buzzer on the second attempt, sending the game into overtime tied at 53.
In the overtime period, Tennessee State and UTM battled it out until the 34 second mark when TSU guard Brianna Lawrence hit a 3-pointer that gave the Lady Tigers a four point lead. Even though Katie Schubert followed up with a 3-pointer to close the lead to one, UTM had to foul TSU, hoping they would miss one or both and give the ball back to the Skyhawks. However, TSU hit both of their free-throws, got a defensive stop and hit one more free-throw to put the game out of reach.
Tennessee State players stormed the court as soon as the final buzzer sounded, sealing their 64-60 win over the top-seeded Skyhawks.
For the Lady Tigers, it is only their third OVC tournament title in program history and their first in 20 years.
After the game, UTM head coach Kevin McMillan had this to say about the game and his team’s performance.
“The game to me was decided in the first 10 minutes,” said UTM head coach Kevin McMillan. “It looked like they wanted it a lot worse than we did. [Tennessee State] jumped out big on us, but I give our kids a lot of credit. They fought back and had a chance to win in the last 30 seconds.”
Coming into the game, sophomore forward Ashia Jones notched a 30 point and 39 point outing in UTM’s previous two tournament games. Jones led the Skyhawks in scoring, but only managed to score 23 points and was named a member of the OVC All-Tournament team. TSU was led by Brianna Lawrence (22 points), who was named OVC Tournament Most Valuable Player.
Overall, the Skyhawks converted 42 percent (19-45) of their shots and 33 percent (3-9) from 3-point range. Even though Tennessee State had lower percentages than the Skyhawks, the Lady Tigers had more opportunities shooting 24-59 (41 percent) from the field and shot 7-24 (29 percent) from 3-point range.
Even though the Skyhawks will not advance to the NCAA tournament, they will receive an automatic bid into the WNIT tournament. UTM will find out where they will be seeded on Monday, March 16 during the WNIT selection show.
