Skyhawks shut down Lindenwood to extend win streak

Four UT Martin players reached double figures, while the Skyhawk defense shined once again in a 69-55 men’s basketball triumph over Ohio Valley Conference rival Lindenwood on Saturday afternoon at the Elam Center.

UT Martin led for 38:31 of clock time, holding the Lions to 26 points below their season scoring average.

The vaunted Skyhawk defense limited Lindenwood to 10.5 percent (2-of-19) shooting from 3-point land and 34 percent (18-for-53) overall while forcing the Lions into 17 turnovers.

That performance allowed UT Martin to improve to 15-4 overall and 7-1 atop the OVC standings while extending its home win streak to nine.

Afan Trnka set a season-high in scoring for the third time in the last five games, posting 17 points in a career-best 36 minutes.

Matas Deniusas generated a stat line of 14 points, seven rebounds, career-high four blocks, three assists and career-best three steals.

Andrija Bukumirovic (14 points, six rebounds) and Pedro Santos (11 points, seven rebounds) additionally helped lead the Skyhawks offensively, while Vladimir Khryapa swiped a career-high five steals in just 22 minutes.

Lindenwood (11-8, 5-3 OVC) was led by Dontrez Williams’ 20 points, five rebounds and five steals.

Anias Futrell added 10 points, five rebounds and three steals as the Lions, whose 55 points was their second-lowest output of the season.

“I thought it was just a masterful job by our players competing and executing our game plan,” UT Martin head coach Jeremy Shulman said. “It was more of a complete performance. Our guys really came out of the gate ready to go. The defense was great but it was an outstanding job offensively as well.

“We weren’t able to get to the free throw line and didn’t shoot the cover off the ball, but we did some unique things and had some players step up.”

A Santos triple at the 16:45 mark of the first half started a 9-0 Skyhawk run and gave UT Martin a lead it would not surrender the rest of the way.

Trnka splashed a 3-pointer at the 8:39 mark to give the Skyhawks their first double-digit lead (25-15) of the day.

Another Trnka trifecta with 2:31 to go before the halftime break extended UT Martin’s advantage out to 35-18 before the Skyhawks settled for a 35-22 lead at the intermission.

Santos and Trnka each managed a game-high nine points apiece while Williams’ eight points guided Lindenwood in the first 20 minutes.

Bukumirovic scored UT Martin’s first six points of the second half before the Lions scored nine unanswered points to get within single digits.

The Skyhawks soon went on a 9-2 run midway through the second half, capped off by a Luca Colceag 3-pointer that boosted UT Martin’s lead to 58-43 with a little under seven minutes remaining.

Lindenwood never threatened from that point as Deniusas canned a 3-pointer from the right wing to give the Skyhawks their biggest lead of the day (67-47) with 2:19 to go.

UT Martin faces a fast turnaround as it goes on the road for a Tuesday match-up at Southeast Missouri. Tipoff from Cape Girardeau is set for 7:30 p.m.