The Pacer

Issue date: 2/6/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski/ UTM Sports Information

UTM women's basketball has been nearly unbeatable at Skyhawk Arena this season, Saturday night was no different.

Southeast Missouri State entered the game ranked No. 2 in the Ohio Valley Conference standings, but could not contain the Skyhawks and sophomore sensation Phyllisha Mitchell, who recorded her ninth double-double of the season. UTM won 63-54 to improve its record to 13-10 overall and 8-7 in OVC action. The win was the sixth consecutive inside the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center. Southeast Missouri falls to 15-7 on the year and 10-4 in conference play.


The Skyhawks began the game with a defensive game plan to shut down OVC Newcomer of the Week Missy Whitney and the nation's top rebounder Lachelle Lyles. UTM also had to carry out that strategy without All-OVC First-Team member Andreika Jackson who was unavailable because of a knee injury suffered in the closing moments of the Skyhawks' game at Tennessee Tech.

The Skyhawk defensive game plan worked from the beginning when the Skyhawks' defensive pressure forced Whitney into the first of five turnovers on the first play of the game, resulting in a Skyhawk basket by senior Crystal Fuller. The Fuller basket to start the game gave Tennessee-Martin a lead they would never relinquish.

The Skyhawks built on their lead throughout the first-half, pushing it to 14 points with 1:30 remaining in the period. The Skyhawks were able to build that lead with healthy doses of Mitchell in the post, who recorded eight points and eight rebounds, and a balance of hot shooting by the guards around the perimiter. A late Redhawk jumper by Joicelin Thesing cut the Skyhawk lead back to 12 going into the locker room.
UTM continued its defensive pressure to open the second half and pushed its advantage to 18 before the Redhawks began to chip away at the lead.

Southeast Missouri cut the lead to nine on a Tarina Nixon jumper, but Kim Cox answered for the Skyhawks with a three-point bucket to push the advantage once again to double digits. UTM would keep a comfortable double-digit lead until the last seconds of the game when the final margin was cut to nine.

"We played 34 minutes of good basketball tonight," said Skyhawk head coach Tara Tansil. "We had a bit of a mental lapse at the end of the game but were still able to come through. We also had a lot of people step up big and fill in for Andreika [Jackson] who wasn't available for us tonight."

Mitchell led the Skyhawks with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Nicole Holman chipped in 11 points, all coming from the free-throw line along with a season high 10 points from Jennifer Angler. Sonya Daugherty led Southeast Missouri and all scores with 24. Lyles pulled down 18 of the Redhawks' 37 total rebounds. The Skyhawks won the team rebounding battle, grabbing 41.

The Skyhawks will return to action Thursday when they face the Tennessee State Lady Tigers at the Gentry Center in Nashville at 7 p.m. Tennessee-Martin took the first match-up with the Tigers, earlier this season 65-57 at Skyhawk Arena.

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