MONDAY’S SCORES
@Missouri 82,
UT Martin 71
@Montana State 65,
Tennessee State 55
MISSOURI 82, UT MARTIN 71
COLUMBIA, Mo. – The University of Tennessee at Martin women’s basketball team gave Missouri, one of the Southeastern Conference’s newest members, all it wanted Monday night. The score was tied 10 times and the lead changed 17 times before Missouri managed to pull out an 82-71 victory.
UT Martin claimed its biggest lead of the game with 10:40 to play in the first half when junior Megan White made a 3-pointer to give the Skyhawks a 19-16 advantage. Missouri answered with a trey and the game was deadlocked at 19-all.
UT Martin enjoyed a second 3-point lead in the first half when junior Jasmine Newsome made a layup of an assist by Shelby Crawford to give the Skyhawks a 22-19 lead.
Newsome also gave the Skyhawks a 3-point lead, 30-27, with 4:46 to play in the first half. Once again Missouri knotted the game with a 3-pointer.
Missouri lead 40-37 at the half when Morgan Eye made a 3-pointer with 1:06 to play. Eye finished the first half with 12 points, four 3-pointers.
Newsome led the Skyhawks with 14 points.
While the back-and-forth game continued in the second half, Missouri managed to stretch its lead to six points, 66-59, with eight minutes to play. Eye stretched the Lady Tigers lead to nine points when she knocked down yet another 3-pointer with 7:45 to go.
With four minutes to go, Eye gave Missouri its biggest lead of the game at 11 points.
The Skyhawks cut the Missouri lead to four points, 73-69, with 3:25 to play when junior Heather Butler made a 3-pointer.
Newsome led the Skyhawks with 24 points. Butler had 16 points, and White tossed in 11 points. The Skyhawks made 11 3-pointers in the game.
Eye led Missouri with eight 3-pointers and 26 points. Bri Kulas scored 20 points and pulled down 14 rebounds, while Lianna Doty tossed in a dozen points.
MONTANA STATE 65, TENNESSEE STATE 55
BOZEMAN, Mont. - The Tennessee State University women's basketball team dropped a hard-fought contest to Montana State, 65-55, on the road Monday night in Worthington Arena.
Although Tennessee State (3-5) knocked down eight three-pointers and was nearly even with Montana State (6-1) from the floor, the difference was MSU's rebounding and free-throws.
TSU was 3-of-7 from the free-throw line while Montana State connected on 18-of-27 from the charity stripe. The Bobcats also outrebounded the Lady Tigers, 46-32.
Jasmin Shuler made five triples in the contest and led TSU with 15 points while Simone Hopes just missed a double-double with 12 points and eight rebounds.
After two ties and nine lead changes in the first half, TSU trailed Montana State, 20-19, with about seven minutes left in the frame.
On TSU's next possession, Kesi Hess knocked down a three-pointer that sparked a short rally that included back-to-back buckets from Destiney Gaston.
The Lady Tigers were leading, 26-20, when the Bobcats answered with a run to close within one. The score was, 29-28, in favor of TSU at the halftime mark.
Despite committing 11, Montana State only scored three points of TSU's turnovers in the first half. The Lady Tigers also shot 43.3 percent from the field, including 42.9 percent from long range in the first stanza.
MSU outscored TSU, 8-2, to open the second half and went ahead, 36-31. A few minutes later, a bucket by Simone Hopes knotted the game at 36-all and the teams traded baskets.
Two ties and three lead changes later, the score was tied, 49-49, at the 7:01 mark. Over the next five minutes, however, Montana State scored ten straight points, including six free-throws, to go up, 59-49, with just over two minutes left on the clock.
The deficit proved too much to overcome for the Lady Tigers.
TSU finished the game with a 37.3 field goal percentage (22-of-59), including 8-of-18 (44.4 percent) from beyond the arc.
The Lady Tigers will have nearly a two-week break before returning to action at home versus Cleveland State. Game time is scheduled for 2 p.m. in the Gentry Center.