By Ryne Rickman, UT Martin Sports Information Director
MARTIN, Tenn. – The home success for the University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball program continued in a big way today as the Skyhawks dialed up an impressive 84-61 Ohio Valley Conference victory over Little Rock.
Today’s triumph gave UT Martin its 16th victory of the 2022-23 campaign, doubling up its win total from last season under head coach Ryan Ridder. It also improved the Skyhawks to 13-1 in the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center, which is only one victory shy of tying the program’s single-season home wins record in the NCAA Division I Era (since 1992).
Parker Stewart topped UT Martin (16-11, 8-6 OVC) in scoring for the 10th time this season, generating 18 points to go along with five rebounds and three assists. Jalen Myers continued his stellar stretch of play with 15 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks while KJ Simon (14 points, five rebounds) and Jordan Sears (12 points, team-high four assists) also helped guide the Skyhawks, who went on a 24-0 run in the first half.
The Trojans (8-19, 4-10 OVC) were led by 19 points off the bench from Isaiah Palermo. CJ White and Ethan Speaker added 10 points apiece but Little Rock was held to 10.5 percent shooting (2-of-19) from three-point range, including an 0-for-16 stretch over the final 35:55 of the contest.
“Give our guys credit – we practiced really hard yesterday,” UT Martin head coach Ryan Ridder said. “We weren’t happy with where we were defensively after that last road stretch and they were ready to go – the physicality from that practice carried over into the game today. Our defensive effort was great – we didn’t allow them to play in transition or get second shots and that’s what we were trying to do with our gameplan.”
The Trojans led 5-0 before Myers dropped in six of the Skyhawks’ first nine points of the game to give UT Martin its first lead at 9-7 at the 16:19 mark. Less than two minutes later, Stewart and Sears drained treys on back-to-back trips down the floor but Little Rock soon reclaimed a 16-15 advantage with 13:22 to go before the halftime break.
That would be the last time that the Skyhawks would trail as the aforementioned span of 24 unanswered points followed over a stretch of 6:31. Seven different UT Martin players provided scoring during the run, including a trio of three-pointers by Stewart in an 89-second span during the early stages of the surge. By the time the dust settled, a pair of Desmond Williams free throws with 6:32 to go in the first half ballooned the Skyhawk advantage out to 39-16.
All in all, the stingy UT Martin defense held Little Rock to 0-for-13 shooting and a pair of turnovers as it made its game-altering run as the Trojans wouldn’t get any closer than 21 points the rest of the way.
A Simon three-pointer from the right wing just before the halftime buzzer padded the Skyhawk lead to 46-22 at the intermission. Stewart’s 16 points led all scorers as UT Martin knocked down 43.8 percent (7-for-16) of its three-point field goal tries and sank 11 of its 12 attempts from the free throw line (91.7 percent). White’s eight points paced Little Rock.
Sears tallied five consecutive Skyhawk points early in the second half before a Simon free throw with exactly 17 minutes left resulted in UT Martin’s biggest lead of the day (54-25).
An old-fashioned three-point play by Williams at the 9:34 mark kept the Skyhawk advantage at 29 points. KK Curry and Koby Jeffries each scored on driving layups just 40 seconds apart from each other to keep the margin at 29 points (74-45) with seven minutes remaining.
Simon scored six straight UT Martin points – the first four coming on a pair of dunks in a 44-second span – to keep the Skyhawks in cruise control until the final horn.
UT Martin rounds out a brief two-game homestand on Thursday, Feb. 16 when it hosts SIUE. The game will serve as the backend of a doubleheader and will begin at 8 p.m.
Graphic courtesy of UT Martin Sports Information