Friday, December 29, 2017

TSU Tigers Fall in OVC Opener in Overtime at UT Martin, 63-60



MARTIN, Tennessee --- The Tennessee State men’s basketball team suffered a 63-60 overtime defeat to UT Martin at the Elam Center on Thursday night. The game, which aired on national television on CBS Sports Network, was the Ohio Valley Conference opener for both teams.

 Ken’Darrius Hamilton scored a team-high 12 points for TSU (5-7, 0-1 OVC), which featured four players in double figures. Kamar McKnight and Darreon Reddick finished with 11 points apiece with Christian Mekowulu adding 10 points and nine boards.

 TSU led by 12 points in the first half before UT Martin (6-8, 1-0 OVC) battled back to cut the Tigers’ halftime edge down to 28-26.

 In a game that had nine ties and 12 lead changes, TSU held a 56-54 edge with 1:06 remaining. The Skyhawks tied the scoring at 56-56 on a Jailen Gill layup and had two stops down the stretch to force overtime.

 In the five-minute overtime period, UT Martin outscored TSU by a 7-4 margin to pick up the win.

 INSIDE THE NUMBERS
  • TSU LEADERS
    • Points – Ken’Darrius Hamilton - 12
    • Rebounds – Christian Mekowulu and Stokley Chaffee Jr. - 9
    • Assists – Darreon Reddick - 7
  • The Tigers’ defense limited UT Martin to 28.6 percent (8-of-28) shooting in the first half, including 8.3 percent (1-of-12) from three-point range.
  • TSU held the Skyhawks to 34.9 percent (22-of-63) from the field on the night.
  • The seven assists were the most for Darreon Reddick since posting eight on Dec. 19, 2015 against Alcorn State.
  • Thursday marked the first time TSU finished with four players scoring in double figures since the overtime win at Kennesaw State on Nov. 25, 2017.
  • TSU’s bench outscored UT Martin’s bench by a 25-10 margin.


HOW IT HAPPENED
  • Strong defense by the Skyhawks in the early going put TSU in a 10-2 hole five minutes into the game.
  • The Tigers turned defense into offense, scoring five points off four UT Martin turnovers as part of a 15-1 run over the next 3:47 of the contest.
  • TSU extended its lead to as many as 12 points 11 minutes into game at 23-11 on a Ken’Darrius Hamilton three.
  • UT Martin cut into the TSU advantage the rest of the half as the Tigers took a 28-26 lead into the locker room. Darreon Reddick posted seven points and three assists to lead the way for the Tigers in the opening 20 minutes.
  • The score went back-and-forth early in the second half with neither team leading by more than four points in the first eight minutes out of the break.
  • UT Martin took a three-point lead on a three by Matthew Butler with four minutes left for a 54-51 edge.
  • The Tigers scored the next five points and had a 56-54 lead on a Christian Mekowulu layup before UTM’s Jailen Gill’s layup with 1:05 remaining knotted the score at 56-56. 
  • In the extra session, the Skyhawks scored the first four points and never looked back en route to outscoring the Tigers, 7-4, in the five minute overtime.

GAME NOTES
  • Thursday’s game aired live on national TV on CBS Sports Network.
  • TSU is 33-26 in the all-time series versus UT Martin.
  • Hampus Ahlin made his first career start on the night.
  • TSU is 1-2 in overtime this season.
 
QUOTES
HEAD COACH DANA FORD
"We did some things that were good enough for us to win, but when you’re on the road, you can’t turn the ball over, and you can’t get whipped on the glass like we did tonight. A lot of that credit goes to UT Martin. Those are two things we have got to get better at. We can’t turn the ball over 17 times, give up 16 second-chance opportunities, but we’ll just have to take this one and build off of it.”
-Overview of the game
“I thought we moved the ball a lot better tonight. We had 10 three’s. We tried to get the ball inside to (Christian) Mekowulu as much as possible. I mean, they were always double-and-triple teaming him every time he got the ball, but we got 17 team assists, which is probably a team-high for us. I thought we were very aggressive, and I thought we did some things to win, but when you’re on the road you have to defend, rebound and take care of the ball. We held them to 33 percent from the floor, but we definitely didn’t rebound. We have to take care of the ball."
-On positives of the game

UP NEXT
  • The Tigers play at Southeast Missouri State on Sunday, Dec. 31, at 1 p.m. at the Show Me Center.
  • The game will air live on the OVC Digital Network.

TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS
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