Skyhawks Roll To 96-52 Victory Over Champion Christian In Nonconference Finale

Sunday, December 14

Martin, Tenn.

4:30 p.m.

UT Martin

8-3,0-0OVC

Champion Christian

0-8

Champion Chris.

UT Martin

Skyhawks Roll To 96-52 Victory Over Champion Christian In Nonconference Finale

12/14/2025 8:07:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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MARTIN, Tenn. – AJ Hopkins scored a career-best 21 points while Lamine Niang and Pedro Santos each nabbed double-doubles in a 96-52 University of Tennessee at Martin triumph over Champion Christian in the final nonconference men's basketball outing of 2025-26.

Hopkins scored all of his points from downtown as the senior out of Atlanta, Ga. connected on seven of this nine tries from beyond the three-point arc. He also tied a career-high with eight rebounds in his first start of the 2025-26 campaign.

Niang (career-best 16 points, 10 rebounds) hauled in his second career double-double while Santos (career-highs of 12 points, 11 rebounds, five steals) secured the first double-double of his young collegiate career to help the Skyhawks outrebound the Tigers by a 65-28 margin.

Filip Radaković (11 points) additionally scored in double figures while Ama Sow (career-highs of nine points and eight rebounds) and Matas Deniusas (nine points, seven rebounds) also helped guide the UT Martin frontcourt.

The Skyhawks are now 8-3 on the season – tying the UT Martin squads from 2022-23, 2015-16 and 2014-15 for the second-most nonconference victories heading into league play in school history.

A National Christian College Athletic Association program from Hot Springs, Ark., Champion Christian shot 20 percent (7-for-35) in the second half – including a 2-of-16 effort (12.5 percent) from three-point land. Kris Barnett posted team-highs of 14 points and six rebounds for the Tigers (5-2).

"This was a fun one – our gameplan coming in was to get some guys going," Skyhawk head coach Jeremy Shulman said. "That was huge for us going into conference play. Depth is so important – we needed to build that up going into the most important time of the season. If you would have told me before the year that we'd be 8-3 with this tough schedule we've had so far, I would have taken it 100 out of 100 times."

UT Martin never trailed, scoring the first 10 points of the contest with five of those coming from Deniusas. Champion Christian pulled within one point (17-16) with 13:31 to play in the first half before back-to-back buckets from Santos got the Skyhawks back on track.

During a stretch of 5:47, four freshmen combined to score 14 of 19 UT Martin points as Santos and Damien King each had four points to go along with three points out of Vladimir Khryapa and Sow. That spurt allowed the Skyhawks to take a 48-34 advantage at the break as Deniusas, Radaković and Santos each had eight points apiece for UT Martin. Barrett's 10 points in the opening 20 minutes led all scorers.

The Skyhawks used a 17-2 run in the early phases of the second half to create some separation. Hopkins owned the hot hand during that span, splashing four triples in a span of 3:19.

Hopkins then drained two more three-pointers on back-to-back trips down the floor, igniting a game-ending 14-0 run for the Skyhawks. A Santos fast break dunk gave UT Martin its biggest lead of the day and provided the final scoring margin of 96-52.

The Skyhawks open Ohio Valley Conference action on Thursday, Dec. 18 when they make a trip to Tennessee State. Tipoff time from Nashville, Tenn. is set for 7:30 p.m.