The UTM women’s basketball team has finished their regular season and will begin postseason play in the WNIT tournament tonight at 6 p.m. against Indiana.
Tip off will be from Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall at Indiana University. UTM will be coming into the game after falling to one seed Belmont in an overtime defeat in the OVC Championship game. The team closed out the season winning nine of their last 10 games, the one loss coming from Morehead State.
UTM would enter the OVC Tournament a two seed and face off against seven seed Southeast Missouri, coming out of the contest with a 63-60 win. They would then go on to play SIUE in the semifinals, coming away with a narrow victory over the cougars at 69-67 sending the Skyhawks to the OVC Championship game where they would play one seed Belmont.
The championship game ended up being the closest of the tournament run for the women of the UTM basketball team. With 14 seconds left in the game, the Skyhawks found themselves up by six, victory appearing eminent. However, a pair of Belmont’s junior guards, Darby Maggard and Maura Muensterman, sunk two from beyond the arch to force overtime with the score at 54-54.
In overtime Belmont would strike first to take the lead, never to lose it again. UTM’s only score in overtime would come from a jump shot by junior guard Emanye Robertson. The final score would be 63-56, UTM falling one game short of being OVC Tournament champions.
However, two players from UTM made the 2018 OVC All-Tournament Team: senior forward Janekia Mason and freshman forward Chelsey Perry.
Indiana lost to two seed Maryland in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals. They will have the advantage of being at home in Thursday’s game. An argument could also be made that they have the “advantage” of playing in a tougher conference, facing off against teams like Ohio State, Maryland and Michigan among other Big Ten teams.
The UTM women’s basketball team will go in determined to come out the other side, advancing to play the winner of Northern Iowa vs. Milwaukee.
The game against the Hoosiers can be watched on BTN Plus (PPV) or listened to on Star 95.1 FM or WUTM 90.3 FM.
