TUESDAY'S SCORES
@Evansville 79,
UT Martin 66 (CIT)
EVANSVILLE 79, UT MARTIN 66
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The incredible journey of the 2014-15 University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball team concluded in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament semifinals, as the Skyhawks fell 79-67 at Evansville at the Ford Center this evening.
UT Martin wraps up the season with a 21-13 overall record under first-year head coach Heath Schroyer. The Skyhawks end the season with 12 road wins (tied for the most in Division-I basketball) and the fourth-largest turnaround in the nation (13-win improvement).
Tonight’s game also marked the end of the collegiate careers of UT Martin seniors Deville Smith, Marshun Newell and Khristian Taylor. The trio was instrumental in the Skyhawks posting the second-highest win single-season win total and first three Division-I postseason victories in program history.
“I can’t say enough about our guys,” Schroyer said. “These kids have given everything they have, they fought tooth and nail every day and we just ran out of gas. This is a group I’ll always remember. They laid the foundation of an expectation level for the future of this program going forward.”
Smith racked up 18 points behind a career-high six 3-pointers to lead UT Martin in scoring for the 13th time this season. Twymond Howard recorded his fifth double-double of the year with 17 points and 10 rebounds while Alex Anderson tallied 15 points on five trifectas for the Skyhawks, who made 13 three-pointers on 27 attempts (48.1 percent) tonight.
Evansville (23-12) was led by DJ Balentine’s game-high 28 points. Adam Wing (16 points) and Blake Simmons (13 points) also reached double-figures for the Purple Aces, who shot 57.1 percent (32-for-56) for the contest.
A three-pointer by Smith at the 19:24 mark gave UT Martin its first advantage of the night. A bucket in the paint by Chandler Rowe extended the Skyhawk lead out to 5-2 with 17:43 remaining in the first half.
Evansville grabbed a quick lead but Anderson poured in five straight points for UT Martin to tilt the score back in favor of the Skyhawks. The Purple Aces led by four points with less than 13 minutes to go in the first half but Smith knocked down three-pointers on back-to-back trips down the floor to give UT Martin a 21-20 lead at the 9:27 mark.
The Purple Aces once again took a four-point lead before a Terrence Durham take to the hoop with 5:46 left in the first half capped off a 7-2 Skyhawk run and evened the score at 28-all.
An old-fashioned three-point play by Howard got UT Martin within two points (33-31) at the 4:41 mark but Evansville was responsible for nine unanswered points on its way to a 13-3 run to close out the half, taking a 46-34 lead in the process.
Smith had 15 points – all on five 3-pointers – to lead the Skyhawks in the first half, as UT Martin made seven trifectas and shot 43.8 percent from three-point range. Balentine scored a game-high 16 points for the Purple Aces, who shot 65.5 percent (19-for-29) from the field in the first 20 minutes.
Evansville accounted for the first 12 points of the second half before a tip-in by Javier Martinez at the 15:39 mark ended the Skyhawk drought. Following a stop on defense, Anderson converted a rare four-point play to make the score 58-40.
UT Martin then made a surge behind a three-point barrage. Three different Skyhawks canned treys in less than two minutes to trim UT Martin’s deficit down to 14 points (68-54) midway through the second half.
Another three-pointer from Howard at the 6:40 mark whittled Evansville’s lead down to 12 points at 71-59 but that was ultimately as close as the Skyhawks would get the rest of the way.