NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Tech’s hopes of a
10th Ohio Valley Conference Women’s Basketball
Tournament championship looked pretty good midway through the
second half Saturday afternoon.
But top-seeded UT-Martin put together a five-minute spurt for an
18-2 run that lifted the Skyhawks from a six-point deficit into a
10-point lead, and the Golden Eagles couldn’t recover. UTM
took the title, their second consecutive, with an 82-65
victory.
Tech (17-16) was led by another uncanny, all-around performance
from senior Tacarra Hayes with 23 points, 11 rebounds, seven
assists and two blocked shots. It was an MVP-caliber performance
for the Tech senior guard, who averaged 22.5 points, nine rebounds,
seven assists, two steals and one blocked shot per game in her
team’s three tourney contests.
However, that honor was voted to UT Martin sophomore guard Heather
Butler who finished the championship game with 35 points, one
rebound, three assists and one steal.
Butler and Hayes were joined on the five-player All-Tournament
team by Jasmine Newsome of UTM, Jala Harris of Tech and Whitney
Hanley of Austin Peay.
Harris was the only other Golden Eagle to score in double figures,
netting 10 along with five rebounds and two assists. Molly Heady
added nine points and Brittany Darling scored eight.
Tech struggled throughout the game to find the range, hitting just
2-for-19 from outside the 3-point arc. Tech was 26-for-45 inside
the stripe for 58 percent, finishing the game with a 43.8 overall
mark.
UTM was 10-for-20 from long range and finished the game hitting
52.7 percent (29-for-55) overall. The Skyhawks had a 33-32 edge in
rebounds.
Newcome had a solid game, finishing with 26 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, two blocked shots and four steals.