The UTM Skyhawks defeated the Murray State Racers to clinch UTM’s second outright Ohio Valley Conference regular season Championship in the program’s history.
Coming into the contest, the Skyhawks were 19-7 and 12-1 in conference play as they took on the Racers (10-16, 3-11 OVC) on UTM Appreciation day. Â The previous time these schools played each other, UTM escaped Murray with a 88-87 win. Â That game saw UTM’s Heather Butler score 33 pts. and the Racers were led by Keiona Kirby, who had 27 pts. Â However, Kirby went down with a leg injury on January 13th against Belmont and has not played since.
The Skyhawks won the opening tip and jumped out to a 14-0 run in the first four minutes of the game. Murray State answered back as they battled against UTM.
When Murray State finally started to cut the lead down to single digits, the Skyhawks went on another 14-0 run.
UTM went into the locker room with a 49-25 lead at halftime.
The second half started with the Skyhawks continuing to pull away from the Racers. UTM went on a 12-0 run and led by as many as 36 with 14:36 left to go in the ballgame.  It wasn’t until halfway through the second half when Murray State started to rally back.  The Racers closed the lead to 17 points. but ran out of time as the Skyhawks defeated Murray St. 84-67.
The Racers leading scorers were Taylor Porter with 14 pts. and Bianca Babic with 13 pts.
The Skyhawks leading scorers were Heather Butler with 29 points. and last weeks OVC player of the week Ashia Jones, who had a double-double with 20 points. and 11 rebounds.
This is UTM’s 20th win of the season and their 13th in conference play. For the Racers, they drop to 10-15 and 3-10 in the OVC.  The loss ends Murray State’s chances of clinching a berth in the OVC tournament.
The Skyhawks will return to action on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. when the Skyhawks will travel to Eastern Illinois to face the Panthers. Â The last home game for the Skyhawks will be on Saturday, March 1 when they host the Austin Peay Governors.
