Skyhawk women get MSU’s best effort

Posted: Wednesday, January 9, 2013 12:00 pm

By RANDY CAVIN
Press Sports
Visiting Murray State made the most of what UT Martin women’s team gave them on defense to hand the Skyhawks a rare Ohio Valley Conference loss at home on Saturday.
The 72-62 defeat was UTM’s first conference home loss in nearly three years. The last time UTM (6-10, 1-1) lost a home conference game at home was on Jan. 16, 2010, when Jacksonville State beat the Skyhawks 63-55 — a streak of 24 home wins without a loss.
“With the game about six or eight minutes in, I thought the game was on a hinge,” head coach Kevin McMillan said. “I thought the Murray kids were playing harder than ours were. I thought they were giving more effort. We clawed, scratched and fought to be down one at the half. I thought we got pretty much outplayed for 40 minutes.”
The Racers (8-4, 1-1) had five players to score in double-figures with senior guard Mariah Robinson scoring a game-high 26 points. The Murray State guard was not intimidated by UTM’s pressure defense in the second half as she scored 19 of her 26 points in the second half.
None of the MSU players were too intimidated by UTM’s press as they got the ball down court and set up for some easy baskets, including six 3-pointers in the second half.
Freshman guard Erika Sisk scored 16 points for the Racers. Keiona Kirby scored 12 points off the bench, and Bianca Babic scored 10 points coming off the bench. MSU’s bench outscored UTM 22-12.
Jasmine Newsome led UTM in scoring with 25 points and also led in rebounds with eight. Heather Butler scored 19, and Rickiesha Bryant added 10 points and six rebounds.
Katie Schubert, Shelby Crawford and Sydney Vanlandingham all fouled out of the game as foul trouble haunted the Skyhawks all night. Murray State made 25-of-39 attempts at the line, while the Skyhawks made 11-of-16.
UTM saw itself down 39-38 at the half after leading by seven just six minutes into the game. The Racers came back and took the lead on a layup by Sisk with four minutes to play in the opening half to make it 34-33.
Schubert gave UTM a 38-37 lead on the back-end of a pair of free throw attempts before Kirby scored on a layup with 28 seconds to play to send the Racers into the locker room with the lead.
Butler gave UTM its last lead of the game on a jumper 1:30 into the second half, and then the Racers went on a 13-6 run for a 54-48 lead. Newsome cut the lead in half on her 3-pointer to make it 54-51 with 15:14 to go in the game.
Crawford got the Skyhawks to within a bucket on a layup to make it 62-60 with 7:16 to play, but then MSU scored 12 of the next 13 points for a 74-61 lead with 4:22 remaining.
MONDAY’S GAME
UTM 84, APSU 57
Butler scored a game-high 32 points to lead four Skyhawk players in double figures.
She now has 1,732 points in her collegiate career, ranking second on the school’s all-time list.
Newsome added 22 points, while Bryant and Vanlandingham scored 10 each for UTM, now 7-10 overall and 2-1 in the OVC.
The Governors led 26-17 with 7:48 to play in the first half, but UTM closed the half on a 21-2 run.
The Skyhawks then started the second half with a 15-2 run to build a 53-30 advantage.
Nicole Olszewski had 20 points and nine rebounds for Austin Peay. Published in The WCP 1.8.13