Sangamon Sun

Cougars Suffer Setback at UT Martin

 A strong shooting night and balanced scoring weren't enough for SIUE Thursday night as the Cougars fell on the road to UT Martin 90-84 at the Elam Center.

SIUE dropped to 17-11 overall and 8-7 in Ohio Valley Conference play, tied with three other teams for fifth place. The top seven teams in the league, including the Cougars, have secured a spot in the OVC Tournament in Evansville. UT Martin, the league's best team at home, improved to 9-6 in the OVC and 17-11 overall. The Skyhawks are now 14-1 at home.

"I am proud of the guys' efforts in a hostile environment like this," SIUE Head Coach Brian Barone said.

Both teams struggled to score out of the gate, with more than two and a half minutes of game time gone before UT Martin took a 2-0 lead. The Skyhawks went up 7-2 and then pushed their lead to 20-9 before the Cougars responded with a 9-0 run.

Jalen Hodge put the Cougars in front for the first time at 26-25 with a three-pointer with 6:08 left in the half. The Skyhawks responded with a 10-0 run to go back up by nine It was 44-33 with 2:03 to play in the half. SIUE scored the final six points and trailed 44-39 at the half.

The two teams traded scores for the start of the second half and SIUE used a 6-0 run to take its largest lead at 60-57 with 9:20 left following back-to-back baskets by Terrance Thompson.

The Cougars missed the chance to widen the lead, turning the ball over on each of their next possessions.  

"We didn't make the shots when we could have extended the lead," Barone said. "We didn't make those plays."

UT Martin had its lead back to six with 6:00 to play and the Skyhawks never trailed again. UT Martin led by 10 with 1:19 to play and then by 13 following a pair of free throws by Parker Stewart.

Ray'Sean Taylor hit a pair of three-pointers late and Damarco Minor hit a three before Hodge connected at the buzzer for the final margin.

Minor led SIUE with 20 points, the fifth time this year he has reached the 20-point mark. Taylor scored 18 points, including 13 in the second half. Taylor moved into the top 30 in all-time scoring at SIUE and now has 802 career points in less than two full seasons.

DeeJuan Pruitt scored 12 points and added 10 rebounds for his seventh double-double this season. Hodge was one off his SIUE career high with 13 points. He was 3-4 from three-point range.

Jalen Sears led UT Martin with a game-high 30 points. He was 11-18 from the field and 8-10 at the free throw line.

"Sears did some good things, especially executing at the rim," Barone said. We walled him up a couple of times, but when we broke what we were trying to do, he took advantage."

The Cougars connected on 46 percent (28-61) of their shots overall and were 10-30 from three-point range. SIUE came into the game as the league's best free throw shooting team, but managed just 18-29 shots from the stripe.

UT Martin was 31-63 (49 percent) overall and 10-25 (40 percent) from three-point range.

SIUE is one of three teams tied for fifth place in the OVC, but just a game back of second place.

"We're frustrated right now, but it is exciting," Barone said. "We have to learn from these expectations down the stretch. It's a compliment about where we are. We're still in position to win a couple of head-to-head matchups."

The Cougars continue their road trip at Tennessee State Saturday. The Tigers also are among the group tied at 8-7 in OVC play.

"We have to re-focus right now," Barone added. "We'll have to get the right kind of rest, travel tomorrow and play Saturday afternoon. I am excited to do it with the group I have."

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