BOX SCORE
MARTIN, Tenn. – The Tennessee State men's basketball team suffered a 72-56 loss at UT Martin on Thursday night at the Elam Center in the Tigers' final regular season road game of the year. Tahjere McCall (Philadelphia, Pa.) scored a team-high 16 points to go with four assists for TSU in defeat.
The Tigers (19-9, 10-5 OVC) trailed the Skyhawks (18-12, 10-5 OVC) by a 33-31 margin at halftime before UT Martin outscored TSU, 39-25 in the second half.
"I thought UT Martin did an excellent job of executing their game plan," second-year TSU Head Coach Dana Ford said. "Their guys really wanted it, and we have to tip our hats to them. We didn't particularly play well in the second half and it cost us."
TSU, which had a 35-33 rebounding edge, shot 40.3 percent from the field on the day, but was 3-for-19 (15.8 percent) from beyond the three-point arc. UT Martin finished 48.0 percent on field goals led by 19 points from Twymond Howard and 15 from Myles Taylor.
Through the opening 10 minutes of the game, TSU held a 10-2 rebounding edge and had a 23-15 lead on the scoreboard.
The Tigers led for most of the first half until an 8-0 run by the Skyhawks that included a pair of Howard three-pointers put the home side up, 33-27, with 1:49 left before halftime. TSU was able to score the final four points of the half to cut the deficit to 33-31. The Skyhawks shot 60 percent from the field in the first half.
Early in the second half, UT Martin tallied the first 10 points to stretch the lead to 43-31.
The Skyhawks continued to play well down the stretch and held a double-digit advantage for most of the second half. The advantage grew to 18 on two occasions for the home side.
On the glass, Demontez Loman (South Port, N.C.), Darreon Reddick (Belleville, Ill.) and Wayne Martin (Brooklyn, N.Y.) finished with seven rebounds apiece for TSU.
TSU caps the regular season with a home game versus Belmont at the Gentry Center on Sunday, Feb. 28, at 2:30 p.m.
GAME NOTES: TSU's record in the all-time series versus UT Martin is now 32-25… TSU is 9-7 away from home and 7-7 in true road games… Christian Griggs-Williams (Milwaukee, Wisc.) made his sixth start of the season and first since Nov. 24 versus Reinhardt.
Tennessee State Head Coach Dana Ford
"He had a solid game. He had a tremendous effort on defense and he had good body language. He finished around the rim for the most part and kept us going early. He made some big shots to get us off our feet and has been super solid for us all year long."
"It's hard to win any road game in college basketball. You've got to play defense for two halves, you've got to rebound the ball and you've got to make your shots around the basket."
- On the challenge of winning on the road
"I just want to send our seniors out with a bang. They've been tremendous in turning this program around, and they deserve everything that we've got."
- On playing Belmont in the home finale on Sunday
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