After nearly a month on the road, the UTM men’s basketball team returns to the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center for a Thursday, Jan. 10 Ohio Valley Conference matchup against defending league champion Murray State. The game – which is the backend of a doubleheader with the Skyhawk women’s basketball team – will start at approximately 7:30 p.m.
The Skyhawks (5-8, 0-2 OVC) will put their five-game home winning streak on the line, as UTM has won its home games by an average of 16.8 points per game in 2018-19. This marks the sixth time in the Skyhawks’ Division I history (since 1992) that the program has started off a season with five consecutive home victories.
UTM began OVC play last week with a pair of tough overtime losses on the road, which was just the fifth time in school history that the Skyhawks played back-to-back OVC overtime contests. UTM held late second half leads in both games before falling 92-87 at Eastern Illinois on Thursday and 74-69 at Southeast Missouri on Saturday.
Fatodd Lewis (16.5 points, 9.0 rebounds) led the Skyhawks last week while Preston Parks (seven trifectas) also chipped in 16.5 points per outing. Despite the two losses, UTM knocked down 23 three-pointers and forced the opposition into 38 turnovers.
Murray State (11-2, 2-0 OVC) leads the OVC in nine different statistical categories and ranks in the top-10 nationally in three-point field goal percentage defense (.266, sixth) and assists per game (19.1, seventh). The Racers started off the conference season with two home wins, defeating Morehead State (90-69 on Thursday) and Eastern Kentucky (97-85 on Saturday).
Point guard Ja Morant has helped ignite Murray State this season, as he was recently ranked as the top 2019 NBA Draft prospect by NBADraft.net. The sophomore leads NCAA Division I basketball with 9.9 assists per game while ranking 12th nationally in scoring (23.3 points per game).
The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ while Chris Brinkley (play-by-play) and Eddie Suiter (color) will broadcast the game on the radio airwaves locally on WCMT 1410 AM/100.5 FM.
Skyhawks junior, Preston Parks goes in for the layup against Southeast Missouri. Parks is from Greenville, South Carolina. The Skyhawks fell to SEMU after overtime, the final score was 69-74. | Photo Credit/ Sports Information
