SKYHAWK POTENTIAL GAME-WINNER FALLS SHORT AT SOUTHEAST MISSOURI

Thursday, February 13

Cape Girardeau, MO

5:15 p.m.

UT Martin

15-9, 11-2OVC

Southeast Missouri

19-5, 11-2OVC

UT Martin

Southeast Missouri

SKYHAWK POTENTIAL GAME-WINNER FALLS SHORT AT SOUTHEAST MISSOURI

2/13/2020 10:01:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score PDF Photo Gallery

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – The University of Tennessee at Martin women's basketball team saw a three-pointer by Chelsey Perry as time expired go offline in a comeback attempt, falling on the road at Ohio Valley Conference foe Southeast Missouri 71-69 on Thursday evening.

With the loss, UT Martin falls into a three-way tie atop the OVC standings with Southeast Missouri and Belmont with five games left in the regular season.

The Skyhawks (15-9, 11-2 OVC) jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter, holding an advantage as large as nine points. Southeast Missouri would respond to trim the deficit in the final minutes before using a 14-0 run in the third quarter to take a lead it would hold throughout the rest of the game. Facing a deficit as large as 11 in the fourth quarter, the Skyhawks chipped away to make it a one-possession game and find an open look by Perry for a potential game-winning three-point attempt but the shot would go off the rim as time expired.

UT Martin struggled from the floor, shooting under 40 percent for much of the game before posting a 40.3 percent clip from the field while making just 4-of-20 three-point attempts. Perry, the nation's third-ranked scoring, led all players with 36 points while tallying eight rebounds and five blocks in the contest. Fellow junior Maddie Waldrop also scored in double figures with 12 points and seven rebounds.

Gallery: (2/13/2020) WBB at Southeast Missouri

"We had our shot to win with the ball in the hands of the best player in the lleague but it just didn't go in," UT Martin head coach Kevin McMillan said. "When you look at it though, it wasn't the final shot that lost us the game, it was the easy buckets that we missed throughout the game that came back to haunt us. If we make our easy shots in the first half, we win the game. We didn't and SEMO played harder than us. They deserved to win."

Southeast Missouri (19-5, 11-2 OVC) snapped a six-game losing streak against UT Martin and picked up their first win in the Show Me Center against the Skyhawks since 2009. Tesia Thompson paced the Redhawks with 22 points and nine rebounds while Carrie Shephard scored 12 points in the victory.

UT Martin will look to rebound on Saturday, Feb. 15 when playing host to Eastern Illinois. The game serves as the OVC Game of the Week and will be broadcast on ESPN3.