The Skyhawk men’s basetball team will advance to the Final Four of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament after a game-winning shot to defeat fellow Ohio Valley Conference foe Eastern Kentucky, 70-69.
The Skyhawks (21-12) advanced to this stage of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament after road wins over Northwestern State and USC Upstate in the first and second rounds of the tournament. The Colonels (21-12) came into the matchup having already notched a 66-58 win over the Skyhawks at Skyhawk Arena back during the regular season.
“To come in here for our third game in a row on the road and play against a really good team – we just made one more play,” said UTM head coach Heath Schroyer. “We’re a gutty group that believe in each other. It’s unbelievable. I told our team that very few people get a chance to be in the Final Four of any national tournament and we’re there so let’s see where they take us next.”
UTM took the first big lead of the game after going on a 14-3 run until the midway point in the first half. The Skyhawks would eventually extend their lead to 15 with less than eight minutes remaining. EKU spent the remainder of the first half cutting into UTM’s lead. The Colonels managed to trim the Skyhawk’s lead to six going into the locker room at halftime.
The Skyhawks finished the first half shooting 61 percent and out rebounded the Colonels 22-8. Despite EKU only shooting 37 percent, nine turnovers and 13 points off turnovers kept the Colonels in the game.
Eastern Kentucky’s proficient 3-point shooting helped the Colonels cut into and eventually take the lead from the Skyhawks. However, the Colonels could not put together a large enough run to extend their lead. Seeing this, UTM fought back-and-forth for a majority of the second half before retaking the lead with just over four minutes remaining.
Eastern Kentucky would answer back by hitting a few key baskets and 3-pointers that gave the Colonels a four point lead with 1:24 remaining in the game. After a layup by UTM’s Javier Martinez and a defensive stop, the Skyhawks found themselves with the ball down by one point with six seconds remaining.
That’s when senior guard Marshun Newell inbounded the ball to Chandler Rowe, who passed it back to Newell, setting up the game-winning 3-pointer with 3.3 seconds remaining. The Skyhawks were able to escape McBrayer Arena with the 70-69 win.
“We really gave Marshun four different reads on the inbounds play and the fourth one was to throw it in and pop back behind it,” said Schroyer. “He went through all of his reads and it’s something we worked on in practice about six weeks ago and luckily we had some time and a timeout to do it. It was great execution and it was a great win.”
The Skyhawks finished the game shooting 50 percent (27-54) and 9-21 from 3-point range. Eastern Kentucky shot 45 percent (26-58) and had success from 3-point range, hitting 15-39 (39 percent). UTM won the battle on the glass, out-rebounding the Colonels 43-19. However, EKU’s defense got the better of the Skyhawks, forcing 17 UTM turnovers compaired to their seven.
Junior forward Twymond Howard led UTM in scoring, tallying 23 points along with seven rebounds. Corey Walden was EKU’s leading scorer with 21 points and seven rebounds.
With the win, the Skyhawks will advance to the Final Four of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. Their opponent will be announced shortly after all other CIT games have ended. Stay tuned to thepacer.net and the Pacer Sports twitter page for updates on who the Skyhawk’s next opponent will be.
