UT Martin forward Grace Billington (No. 10) goes up for a layup during the Heritage Classic game against Tennessee on Nov. 9, 2025, at the Kathleen & Tom Elam Center in Martin, Tenn. (Pacer Photo/Kaniya Anthony)

In a game that the UT Martin Skyhawks entered as massive underdogs against the No. 8 Tennessee Lady Volunteers, they played their hearts out and fell 72-61 in the home opener.

This matchup between UT Martin and Tennessee was the Pat Summitt Heritage Classic. Summitt played at UT Martin from 1970 to 1974 and coached at Tennessee from 1974 to 2012. The event has been ongoing since 1997, when Tennessee first visited UT Martin for a game. The event serves as a tribute to Summitt’s playing and coaching career, especially after Summitt died in June 2016.

Former UT Martin athletic director Bettye Giles was also in attendance. Giles is the only woman athletic director in UT Martin history, serving from 1969 to 1994. She was one of Summitt’s biggest supporters and left a major impact on UT Martin athletics as a whole. UT Martin head coach Kevin McMillan spoke on how much Giles means to UT Martin and what it meant for her to be at this game.

“I thought it was a great atmosphere, a great chance to honor Pat and Miss Betty. I don’t think that anybody in here realizes what Betty Giles means to women’s sports, women’s basketball. The ties that she has to Tennessee and Martin. She’s the reason that Title IX went in Tennessee. The fact that she was here today at 96 years old was extremely special and you know, I tell her all the time, win or lose, I just want you to be happy with how hard these kids play,” McMillan said. “This is what Miss Betty and Pat would have wanted to see out here in a women’s basketball game between Tennessee and Tennessee Martin. I mean, forget the game, forget the score, just look at the atmosphere, the crowd. That’s what they envisioned when they started doing this stuff.”

UT Martin was outmatched physically. UT Martin’s average height among seven players was 5-foot-10. That, compared to Tennessee’s average height of 6-foot-5 across 11 players, made it almost impossible for UT Martin to score and guard inside the paint. McMillan spoke about how hard it was for UT Martin to battle against Tennessee when faced with a challenge like this.

“It’s hard to battle when you don’t have a six-footer out there for probably 25 minutes of that game. That’s tough to fight sometimes,” McMillan said.

UT Martin finished with a field goal percentage of 44.9% (22-for-49). While UT Martin was outmatched in height, that did not stop the team from fighting back — for better and worse. The team finished with 18 fouls, which included junior forward Zy Thompson with five, resulting in a disqualification late in the fourth quarter.

However, redshirt junior guard Kenley McCarn and sophomore guard Grace Billington did score when needed. McCarn scored 14 points as she made seven field goals (7-for-13). Billington only had five made field goals on seven attempts, but made up for the lack of mid-range and short shots with four three-pointers — with only one miss — and added another six points from the free-throw line.

Notably, Billington received the second-lowest amount of playing time among all Skyhawks but still managed to lead the team in scoring at 28 total points. McMillan added this when asked about Billington’s role on the team for future games:

“Grace is one of our best players. Grace has only played in like four or five games last year,” McMillan said. “And so if she can kind of figure out what we need from her, which of course, was what you saw today, she’s hard to deal with because she can shoot it from the perimeter, she can drive, she’s strong. If she plays, if she accepts that role, it will surely make life for a Kenley [McCarn], a Brittani [Wells], a lot easier, and it will make us a lot harder to guard.”

While UT Martin lost, there were a lot of positives to look at in this game from the passes, physicality and boundary shots. UT Martin will be back at home for their next matchup, where they are set to host the Fisk Bulldogs at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center at 2 p.m.