Skyhawks Reach 20-Win Plateau With Gutsy OVC Win At SIUE

Saturday, February 14

Edwardsville, Ill.

3:30 p.m.

UT Martin

20-7,12-4OVC

SIUE

17-10,10-6OVC

UT Martin

SIUE

Skyhawks Reach 20-Win Plateau With Gutsy OVC Win At SIUE

2/14/2026 8:52:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – Back in sole possession of first place in the Ohio Valley Conference standings is the University of Tennessee at Martin men's basketball team, who prevailed in a wild 81-76 victory at SIUE this afternoon.

The Skyhawks held a 44-32 halftime advantage but the defending OVC Tournament champion Cougars began the second half on a 22-0 run to build a double-digit lead. UT Martin tallied its first points of the second half at the 12:27 mark and later seized control behind an 18-2 run of its own, building up a 77-67 lead with 39 seconds remaining on the way to the win.

Five Skyhawks scored in double figures today, led by Andrija Bukumirović's 19 points with a game-high nine rebounds. Pedro Santos added 15 points while the trio of Matas Deniusas, Filip Radaković (career-best four steals) and Afan Trnka (4-of-4 shooting, game-high five assists) each scored 13 points apiece. AJ Hopkins added eight points for UT Martin (20-7, 12-4 OVC), who won its seventh straight decision over SIUE and notched its sixth 20-win campaign of the school's NCAA Division I Era (since 1992).

Reigning OVC Player of the Week Tyler King scored 27 points while Jack Campion tacked on 21 points to guide the Cougars. Arnas Sakenis also had 15 points and nine rebounds for SIUE, who is now 17-10 (10-6 OVC).

"This win was unbelievable," Skyhawk head coach Jeremy Shulman said. "SIUE's run to start the second half was an avalanche but somehow our guys got back off the mat. I can't say enough great things about our group – to come out on top in this intensity, being on the road in this atmosphere against a great ballclub. We got SIUE's best effort and hopefully we can build off this going forward through this stretch run."

The Cougars started the game on an 8-2 run before triples from Radaković, Deniusas and Bukumirović on three straight possessions gave UT Martin an 11-8 lead. The Skyhawks soon engineered 12 unanswered points to take a 29-18 edge after Hopkins drilled a trifecta with 9:42 to go in the first half.

Santos knocked down a pair of free throws at the 5:49 mark to give the Skyhawks their biggest lead of the contest at 36-23. A three-pointer from Deniusas wrapped up the first-half scoring and provided UT Martin with a 44-32 lead at the break. Bukumirović had 13 points to lead all scorers in the opening half as the Skyhawks shot 57.7 percent (15-of-26) from the floor and 58.3 percent (7-for-12) from three-point range. Campion and King each generated 10 points to top SIUE.

A driving layup by Santos broke UT Martin's second-half scoring drought but the Cougars maintained an eight-point advantage (63-55) with 7:25 left to play. Hopkins, Santos and Bukumirović followed with three-pointers over a 1:38 span to help the Skyhawks get back in the game.

Bukumirović had six points during a 12-0 UT Martin run that occurred over a stretch of 3:21, flipping a four-point Skyhawk deficit into a 73-65 advantage. Trnka, Santos, Radaković and Deniusas combined to go 8-for-10 from the charity stripe in the final 52 seconds to ice the comeback win for UT Martin.

The Skyhawks return home for three of their final four games of the regular season, starting with a Tuesday, Feb. 17 matchup against Southeast Missouri. Tipoff time from the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center is set for 7:30 p.m. as the backend of a doubleheader with the UT Martin women's squad.