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UT Martin Men’s Basketball Falls to Pittsburgh in Season Opener

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By Ryne Rickman, UT Martin Sports Information Director

 

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball team began the 2022-23 campaign Monday evening at Pitt, falling by an 80-58 margin to the Atlantic Coast Conference foe at Petersen Events Center.

The Skyhawks held the host Panthers to 36.6 percent shooting (26-of-71) – including a 26.8 percent accuracy (11-for-41) from three-point range. However, UT Martin could only connect on 32.3 percent (20-of-62) of its field goal tries and made 15.8 percent (3-for-19) of its attempts from beyond the three-point arc.

KJ Simon collected team-highs of 11 points and five rebounds for the Skyhawks as the senior lefty was the only UT Martin player in double figures in the scoring column. Parker Stewart chipped in nine points, a game-high three steals, three rebounds and two assists while Jordan Sears provided eight points in his Skyhawk debut.

Pitt placed four scorers in double figures, led by a double-double of 27 points and 13 rebounds out of Blake Hinson. Federiko Federiko (13), Greg Elliott (11) and Jamarius Burton (10) also scored in double digits for the Panthers.

“Give Pitt credit – they’ve really upgraded their guard play and they played extremely well,” UT Martin head coach Ryan Ridder. “I just felt we could never get a rhythm going offensively and we struggled to take care of the basketball with 17 turnovers. We feel like we didn’t play our best basketball today but we have a group of guys that are going to come in and find a way to get better tomorrow.”

It was a defensive battle for a majority of the first half as both sides combined for just one field goal in the opening 4:27. A fast break driving layup by Stewart with a little over 14 minutes to go in the first half evened the score at 4-all.

A pair of Stewart free throws capped off seven straight Skyhawk points for the graduate guard out of Union City, Tenn. and kept UT Martin within a single possession at 11-8 a little over midway through the first half.

Pitt then scored seven unanswered points to go ahead by double digits until Rifen Miguel scored back-to-back buckets for the Skyhawks. A pull-up jumper outside the paint from Koby Jeffries helped UT Martin stay within striking distance at 23-16 with five minutes remaining before the halftime break. The Panthers then went on an 8-0 run on the way to a 37-24 lead at the half.

Hinson had 11 points in the first half while Stewart’s seven points paced the Skyhawks, who had five players with at least two fouls at the intermission after being whistled for 14 fouls in the opening 20 minutes.

Jeffries found Chris Nix for a dunk on UT Martin’s opening possession of the second half but Pitt went on a 7-0 spurt. Simon then registered six of the Skyhawks’ next eight points before a Desmond Williams trifecta shaved UT Martin’s deficit to 51-37 with 14:20 remaining.

The Panthers tallied 10 unanswered points as part of a 20-3 run to create some separation. A fast break layup by Jeffries at the 6:13 mark ended the drought for the Skyhawks.

Sears scored six consecutive points for UT Martin down the stretch as the squad ended the contest on a 10-0 run. However, the deficit was too large to overcome by that point.

The Skyhawks face a quick turnaround as they make the 70-mile trek to Youngstown State for a nonconference tilt on Wednesday, Nov. 9. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. CST.

 

Graphic courtesy of UT Martin Sports Information

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