UT Martin Slides Past Prairie View A&M In Pensacola Invitational Opener

Saturday, November 22

Pensacola, Fla.

4 p.m.

UT Martin

4-1,0-0OVC

Prairie View A&M

2-4,0-0SWAC

UT Martin

Prairie View

Photo by: Jack Mathieson

UT Martin Slides Past Prairie View A&M In Pensacola Invitational Opener

11/22/2025 10:19:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Stats PDF Photo Gallery

PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of Tennessee at Martin men's basketball team erased an 11-point halftime deficit to claim a 69-68 triumph over Prairie View A&M in the first game of the Pensacola Invitational.

Two late defensive stands sealed the victory for the Skyhawks (4-1), who trailed by two points with 1:22 to go before Dragos Lungu made a free throw and Andrija Bukumirović sank the eventual game-winning bucket on a fast break layup off a Luca Colceag block with 41 seconds to go. UT Martin then forced a turnover and swarmed the Panthers on the final possession of the game, not allowing Prairie View A&M to get off a shot attempt before the final buzzer sounded.

Matas Deniusas produced a team-high 20 points – aided by an unblemished 8-for-8 effort from the free throw line – to go along with seven rebounds. Bukumirović notched his third double-double of the young 2025-26 campaign with 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds while Drago Lungu (11 points, career-best nine assists) and Filip Petkovski (10 points) also scored in double figures for the Skyhawks, who shot 53.6 percent (15-of-28) in the second half and outscored the Panthers by a 36-24 margin in the paint en route to their first 4-1 start since the 2016-17 season.

Prairie View A&M (2-4) was led by 22 points apiece out of Tai'Reon Joseph and Cory Wells. Dontae Horn additionally provided 11 points but the Panthers shot just 28 percent (7-for-25) with no three-pointers over the final 20 minutes.

A thunderous Deniusas dunk opened the scoring before another Deniusas slam pushed UT Martin's lead out to 10-5 with 15 minutes to go in the first half. Prairie View A&M then scored eight unanswered and didn't trail for the remainer of the first half.

A pair of Deniusas free throws pulled the Skyhawks back within a bucket (17-15) at the 7:32 mark but the Panthers went ahead by double figures (28-18) with three minutes to go, leading by as many as 12 before taking a 39-28 lead into the locker room. The UT Martin duo of Deniusas and Petkovski each had team-highs of eight points while Joseph and Horne had 18 and 10 points, respectively, to guide Prairie View A&M.

The Skyhawks came roaring out of the locker room to the tune of an 16-2 run, capped off with a Lungu driving layup that gave UT Martin a 44-41 lead with 13:50 remaining. A Pedro Santos triple at the 12:27 mark extended the Skyhawk lead out to 49-42.

UT Martin kept that lead until five consecutive Panther points resulted in a 62-60 Prairie View A&M lead with exactly four minutes to go. Petkovski (driving layup), Afan Trnka (two free throws) and Bukumirović (second chance layup) followed with the next six Skyhawk points to set up the aforementioned final 82 seconds of the game.

UT Martin advances to the Pensacola Invitational championship contest tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. as the Skyhawks will take on Southern Miss, who defeated North Florida by a 92-83 margin in tonight's nightcap.