By Ryne Rickman, UT Martin Sports Information Director
MARTIN, Tenn. – An extended run at the end of the second half helped the University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball squad put away Southeast Missouri in convincing fashion, winning 84-63 at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
Although the Skyhawks (8-15, 4-7 Ohio Valley Conference) held a lead for 29:33 today, it was a five-point contest with six minutes remaining. UT Martin then wrapped up the game on a 17-1 run, largely aided by a sizzling stretch where KJ Simon went off for 10 points in a span of 2:53.
Simon concluded the day with a game-high 19 points in only 17 minutes as the junior guard from Orlando, Fla. was plagued by foul trouble for a majority of the contest. He knocked down seven of his nine field goal tries and swatted a pair of shots for his 10th multi-block performance of the season for the Skyhawks, who outrebounded the Redhawks by a 44-25 margin while canning 45.5 percent (10-of-22) of their three-point attempts.
Mikel Henderson generated 17 huge points off the bench – shooting 5-for-8 from three-point land. Bernie Andre tallied his fourth double-double in the last five games (14 points, season-high 12 rebounds) while the frontcourt tandem of KK Curry and Chris Nix posted identical stat lines of 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocks.
Southeast Missouri was held to 37 percent shooting today, slipping to 30 percent (9-of-30) in the final 20 minutes. Manny Patterson and Eric Reed, Jr. each scored 12 points while Nygal Russell and Nana Akenten both provided 10 points for the Redhawks, who fall to 9-13 overall and 4-5 in OVC play.
“Southeast Missouri has a really electric offense and to hold them to 63 points, I thought our guys were locked in to our gameplan,” UT Martin head coach Ryan Ridder said. “I’m proud of our grit – at halftime we had 10 turnovers but we only had four in the second half and outscored them 46-29. I thought our frontline was really tough – during the game, I felt really good about our toughness level and our ability to go crash the offensive glass. We wound up rebounding over 50 percent of our misses.”
The Skyhawks started off slow as Southeast Missouri jumped out to a 7-0 lead. Simon got UT Martin on the scoreboard with a driving layup at the 15:35 mark.
Five of the Skyhawks’ next six field goals came from long distance, including a trio of trifectas from Henderson – the last of which provided UT Martin with its first lead of the day at 19-17. A hook shot from Nix at the 8:35 mark capped off a 10-0 run and flipped a four-point deficit into a six-point advantage for the Skyhawks.
A fast break pull-up trey from Andre with 5:07 to play in the opening half stretched UT Martin’s lead out to 30-22. Josh Endicott sank a free throw to pad the Skyhawk advantage to nine points but the Redhawks were able to get within four (38-34) at the intermission.
Andre’s 12 points led all scorers at halftime while Russell and Akenten each accumulated seven points to pace Southeast Missouri.
The UT Martin duo of Simon (five) and Nix (four) joined forces to score UT Martin’s first nine points of the second half. Despite that, the Redhawks trimmed their deficit to one point (47-46) at the 15:35 mark.
The Skyhawks then struck for six unanswered points – taking a 54-47 lead following a Henderson trifecta. Another Henderson trey – his fifth of the contest – extended UT Martin’s lead out to 59-49 with 13 minutes to go.
A 4-for-4 effort from the charity stripe (two from Andre, two from Henderson) following a common foul and technical foul helped the Skyhawks maintain a double-digit advantage (65-55) with 8:41 remaining.
Southeast Missouri had one final run left in them, pulling within five points (67-62) at the 6:03 mark. UT Martin rallied with its game-ending run, ignited by four consecutive points from Koby Jeffries before Simon’s scoring barrage. A pair of Curry free throws with just under a minute to go gave the Skyhawks their biggest lead of the day (22 points) going away.
UT Martin puts the finishing touches on a short two-game homestand on Saturday, Feb. 5 when it hosts Tennessee State. Tipoff from the Elam Center is set for 3:30 p.m. (following the conclusion of the women’s game which starts at 1 p.m.).
Graphic courtesy of UT Martin Sports Information