By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech men's basketball team wraps up its home portion of the 2022-23 regular season Saturday afternoon, welcoming in in-state rival UT Martin for a 3:00 p.m. CT tilt as part of Senior Day.
Fans will have plenty of options to follow the action, with Roger Ealey providing radio coverage on 106.1 The Eagle and Dylan Vazzano and Frank Harrell sharing the call on ESPN+. The game can also be heard on the WTTU student radio station 88.5 FM.
The Tech squad will honor four members of this year's team as part of Senior Day festivities following the women's contests with the Skyhawks, which tips at 1 p.m. CT. The women's Senior Day ceremony will commence immediately following the men's and just before both men's teams take the floor for warm-ups.
On tap to be recognized for the men are graduate guard Ty Perry, graduate forward Jaylen Sebree, junior guard Diante Wood, and senior guard Marcus Lee Jr.
UT Martin comes into the contest following back-to-back victories at home between last Saturday and this Thursday. Last weekend, the Skyhawks bounced back from a tough, 77-75 loss at Eastern Illinois with a blowout win over Little Rock, 84-61.
UTM kept its momentum rolling into Thursday, besting SIUE, 90-84, in a battle between two programs vying for second place in the OVC standings. The win pushed Martin into a three-way tie for second place with the Golden Eagles and Southeast Missouri.
In the all-time series between the two OVC rivals, Tech leads with a decisive, 41-16 advantage. The Golden Eagles hold a 23-6 lead in the series when competing in Cookeville.
The purple and gold swept the season series last year, snapping a four-game skid when playing in Martin with a 76-70 victory on Jan. 15. The Golden Eagles made it two straight wins in Martin earlier this season, besting the Skyhawks in an overtime thriller at the Elam Center, 84-80, back on Jan. 7.
The Golden Eagles enter Saturday's action picking up a critical win over Lindenwood Thursday evening, 77-68. Trailing by two with a little under four minutes to play, the purple and gold produced a 13-2 run to end the night, backed by clutch play down the stretch from Jayvis Harvey and a career showing by Brett Thompson.
Harvey turned in nine of his 15 points in the final four minutes of the contest and assisted on a key 3-pointer from Jaylen Sebree to give the Golden Eagles the lead for good. Thompson poured in a career-high 28 points and dished out six assists, finishing 10-for-20 from the field while knocking down four makes from deep and securing a pair of steals.
Sebree turned in 14 points with a team-high eight rebounds and racked up four assists with a pair of steals. Graduate guard Ty Perry put forth nine points and five boards.
The win gave the purple and gold at least one victory over every OVC team this season, the first time a Golden Eagle squad accomplished the feat since the 2002-03 season. It marked the first time since 2001-02 the team pulled it off in the regular season alone.
Following Saturday's match-up, Tech will wrap up the regular season with a road swing up north, starting with the team's first visit to Southern Indiana on Thursday, Feb. 23 in a 7:30 p.m. match-up. The Golden Eagles will then head to Charleston, Ill. for a Saturday affair with Eastern Illinois at 3:30 p.m.
Photo by Jim Dillon
