Bruce Price Scores 24 Points

The Tennessee State Tigers (10-14, 7-8) dropped a 91-81 decision at Tennessee-Martin (12-14, 8-8) and slipped into an eighth place tie in the ever-important race for an OVC tournament berth.

The upcoming Ohio Valley Conference tournament, March 4-8, 2008, takes the top eight teams into first round play at campus sites. There are nine teams in the race for first round berths and TSU is now tied with Southeast Missouri for eighth place.

At UT Martin, Bruce Price led the Tigers in scoring with 24 points, with support from Gerald Robinson, Jr., with 21 points and LaDarious Weaver added 12 points. Jerrell Houston pulled down 8 rebounds and scored 8 points. Moraye Ivy also scored 8 points for the Tigers.

The Tigers, however, gave up a career-high 38 point scoring performance to the Skyhawks Gerald Hudson. He got support from Gerald Robinson (18) and Marquis Weddle (18).

TSU fell behind early, 10-3 (16:25), but caught UTM at 14-14 (12:32) on a jumper by Jerrell Houston. Gerald Robinson, Jr. pushed the Tigers to a 23-17 lead (9:50) after a pair of 3-pointers. The Skyhawks, however, finished the half with a 44-40 lead when Hudson hit three FTs after being fouled on a 3-point shot with :04 remaining in the half. TSU's Gerald Robinson, Jr. finished the half with 16 points.

In the second half, the Tigers tied the score at 44-44 (18:32), but UTM went on an 11-2 run for a 55-46 lead (14:16) and never trailed again in the game. The Skyhawks led by as much as twelve points, three times in the second half.

TSU shot 41% (30-73) from the floor, 32% from 3-point range (11-34) and 78% (10-13) from the FT line. UT Martin shot 52% (31-30) from the floor, 33% (8-24) from 3-point range and 81% (21-26) from the charity stripe. UTM led in the battle of the boards 39-38.