The UTM Skyhawks women’s basketball team won their ninth straight win, and their third straight 100+ point game, Monday night with a 103-84 victory over the Eastern Illinois Panthers.
The Skyhawks, who improved to 16-6 on the season and a perfect 9-0 in Ohio Valley Conference play, were looking to pick up a key victory over the Panthers (8-12, 3-6 OVC), who last year were the OVC regular season champs.
UTM opened the game by going on a 9-0 run in the first two minutes of the first half. However, the Panthers started fighting back and tried to close the gap, but key mistakes, like giving up 19 points off of 13 turnovers and shooting 18.2% (2-11) from the 3-point line, costs the Panthers in the first half as the Skyhawks took a 51-35 lead into the locker room at halftime.
UTM’s leading scorers at the half were Ashia Jones with 13 points and Heather Butler, who had 12 points and 5 assists. EIU’s leading scorer was Arnisha Thomas, who came off the bench and scored 16 points in 10 minutes.
The second half started with both teams going back and forth with neither team going on any run. EIU rebounded from their poor 3-point shooting in the first half and shot 72.7% (8-11) in the second half with Katlyn Payne shooting 5-8 from outside the arch. However, the first half proved costly for the Panthers as they were never able to gain any ground on the Skyhawks and UTM would go on to defeat EIU by a final score of 103-84.
The Panthers leading scorers were Payne with 26 points (19 of those coming in the second half) and Sabina Oroszova who totaled 22 points (16 of those coming in the second half).
Heather Butler led the Skyhawks in points with 28 points and nine assists, and Ashia Jones, who went 11-15 from the field, totaled a career high 27 points.
“[Jones] is doing better than we expected … she likes the responsibility of having to contribute and she is doing a great job with it,” said UTM head coach Kevin McMillian. “She has matured and she is starting to understand what we need her to do.”
The Skyhawks next game will be in one week as they travel to Richmond, KY to take on the OVC east division leading Eastern Kentucky Colonels in an attempt to remain undefeated in OVC play. The game will be on Monday Feb. 3 at 6 p.m. from the Alumni Coliseum.
