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In a game that came down to the wire the breaks went UT Martin's way as the Skyhawks beat Eastern Illinois 68-63 on Thursday night at the Elam Center.
EIU had four players score in double figures led by
Artese Stapleton with 16 points followed by
Nakyel Shelton with 14 points.
EIU led 37-23 at the half building that advantage on a 16-2 run to close the first half. Stapleton had five points in that run.
The Panthers extended that lead to 17 points to open the second half with quick baskets by
Zion Fruster and Stapleton leading 42-25 with 18:29 left in the game.
The Panthers then had a six-minute stretch without a field goal. UT Martin used a 10-0 run to climb back in the game closing to within three with 5:05 to play on free throws by Vladimer Salaridze. Salaridze finished with 23 points.
Tarence Guinyard cut the lead to one with a lay-up ending a 8-0 UTM run that cut EIU's lead to 56-55.
Fruster pushed the lead back to three points on a jumper out of the media timeout as Fruster finished with 12 points. Guinyard had a three point play for the Skyhawks to tie the game at 58-58 with three minutes to play. Guinyard had 18 points going 7-of-7 on free throws including four big shots at the charity stripe in the final minute.
EIU had one final chance to tie the game with 2.6 seconds making a lay-up by
Corey Sawyer Jr but the free throw fell off the rim and UTM closed the game at the free throw line.
Kooper Jacobi had his sixth double-double of the season with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
EIU drops to 5-12 overall, 1-5 in the OVC. UTM improves to 8-10 overall, 4-3 in the OVC.