Skyhawks Coast To Record-Setting 84-44 OVC Rout Of Western Illinois

Saturday, January 31

Macomb, Ill.

3:30 p.m.

UT Martin

17-5,9-2OVC

Western Illinois

4-19,0-12OVC

UT Martin

Western Ill.

Skyhawks Coast To Record-Setting 84-44 OVC Rout Of Western Illinois

1/31/2026 10:27:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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MACOMB, Ill. – The largest margin of victory in the University of Tennessee at Martin's Ohio Valley Conference history now belongs to the 2025-26 Skyhawks as UT Martin throttled Western Illinois by an 84-44 score this afternoon.

The 40-point triumph was nine points better than the Skyhawks' previous record, which was set just last season in a 77-46 win at Southern Indiana on Dec. 21, 2024. UT Martin never trailed and led by as many as 44 points in one of its most dominant performances of the season.

Filip Petkovski paced the Skyhawks in scoring for the first time in his blossoming career as the freshman out of Kranj, Slovenia unleashed game- and career-highs of 17 points and eight rebounds. He connected on seven of his 11 field goal tries while sinking three treys in 28 minutes of playing time.

Andrija Bukumirović tallied 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting while Matas Deniusas (11 points, seven rebounds, career-highs of five assists and three steals) and Pedro Santos (10 points, six rebounds, three assists, four steals) delivered impressive all-around performances for UT Martin. The Skyhawks – who improved to 17-5 overall with a 9-2 mark in OVC play – held a 41-20 edge in rebounding, outscored the Leathernecks 40-14 in the paint and held Western Illinois to 26.5 percent (13-of-49) shooting.

The Leathernecks (4-19, 0-12 OVC) were led by Lucas Lorenzen's eight points as UT Martin turned 14 Western Illinois turnovers into 26 points while manning a 19-7 advantage in fast break points.

"I'm just really proud of our guys," Skyhawk head coach Jeremy Shulman said. "For our guys to come out and execute our gameplan like that – we were smart and dialed-in for the whole game but especially offensively in the second half. We're going to enjoy this one for a little bit before refocusing for three bigtime home games next week."

UT Martin scored eight of the first 10 points of the game and never looked back. The Leathernecks got within one point at the 15:20 mark of the first half but the Skyhawks responded with 15 unanswered points that included six points from Petkovski, two free throws by Filip Radaković, back-to-back dunks by Deniusas and a three-pointer from Santos. Western Illinois would not get any closer than 11 points the rest of the way as UT Martin took a 38-20 lead into the halftime break.

Petkovski and Deniusas each had a game-high eight points in the first 20 minutes as the Leathernecks had the lowest first-half scoring output of any Skyhawk NCAA Division I opponent this season.

Deniusas swished a three-pointer on UT Martin's opening possession of the second half as the Skyhawks stayed hot. UT Martin used a 25-3 run over a stretch of 9:18 to put the game out of reach – limiting Western Illinois to 0-for-12 shooting with three turnovers in that span.

Santos buried a mid-range jumper with 1:49 to go to stretch the Skyhawk advantage out to 84-40 – their biggest lead of the day.

UT Martin has a busy upcoming week as the Skyhawks have three games in the span of five days at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center. That stretch begins with a Tuesday, Feb. 3 outing against Little Rock that was rescheduled from a Jan. 24 postponement. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m., following the women's game as the backend of a doubleheader.