Historic showing by UTM’s Newsome worth another win

Posted: Wednesday, February 8, 2012 12:00 pm

By KEVIN WEAKS
Messenger Sports
With UT Martin’s first point of the game, Jasmine Newsome became a part of the program’s history.
After 18 more points and 11 rebounds, she was a big part of yet another Skyhawk win.
The final point totals saw UTM pull away from Murray State for an 84-67 win in front of 4,020 at the Elam Center.
On a night when former UTM great Pat Summit was honored with a “We Back Pat” fund-raising effort as a result of her diagnosis of early-onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type, Newsome passed the person known as Pat Head on campus 40 years ago by becoming the second-fastest to reach 1,000 career points.
Newsome became the 13th player in school history to score 1,000, doing so in 55 games. The total ranks second only to teammate Heather Butler, who achieved the mark in her 50th game two weeks ago, and moves Summitt down to third fastest on that list.
“Jasmine is a phenomenal player,” UTM head coach Kevin McMillan said. “She can rebound and do so any things, and we have to have her.”
The win officially punched UTM’s ticket to the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, which begins at the end of the month in Nashville. The defending tourney champion Skyhawks are now 9-1 in the league and 15-8 overall. Murray State falls to 5-5 and 9-14.
Newsome and her guard running mate Butler once again led the way with their offensive fireworks.
Butler topped all players with 28 points while also turning in seven assists. Newsome, meanwhile, had a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds, her 1,000th point coming on a free throw at 17:31 of the first half. All 11 boards were on the defensive end as UTM limited the Racers to 11 offensive rebounds and seven second-chance points.
It was play in the paint that also played a key role in the win.
Perica Glenn led a post-by-committee with 12 points and nine rebounds, hitting six of her nine field goal attempts, while Aubrey Reedy had nine points and was tough defensively. Shelby Crawford and Beth Hawn were also part of that solid rotation.
The two teams were virtually even through the first half as Murray State, with wins in five of its last seven games coming in, continued their recent solid play. The teams were tied four times and swapped leads five times.
Kayla Lowe’s 3-pointer at 12:17 gave the Racers a 13-10 lead after Reedy had knotted the game at 10-all on a free throw. UTM then took a 19-17 lead, only to see Mariah Robinson score her only six points of the night on a pair of threes that gave MSU a 23-19 lead at 7:14.
A triple on the other end, however, marked the final lead change of the game, Jaclissa Haislip’s 3-pointer at 5:23 ignited an 11-2 UT Martin run to close the first half with the Skyhawks up 34-28.
UTM’s scoring spurt continued with the beginning of the second half as Haislip hit another trey, Shelby Crawford hit once from the line, and Newsome hit two times from the stripe for a 40-28 Skyhawk lead.
“I didn’t think we were executing well in the first half,” McMillan said. “I didn’t see a lot of rhythm in the first half. In the second half, it wasn’t a lot better, but we got in some rhythm, and Jasmine and Heather got more aggressive. When they do that, we usually play better. Our break looks better, our halfcourt looks better and maybe our defense looks better, too.”
MSU closed to within eight points on four occasions just past the midway mark, but a basket each by Glenn and Butler and two by Newsome stopped each Racer rally.
The 17-point final margin was the largest of the game.
Erica Burgess led Murray State with 26 points, while Lowe scored 16, hitting 4-of-6 3-pointers.
UTM has won six straight and hosts Jacksonville State tonight, tip-off slated for 7. Published in The WCP 2.7.12