UTM’s recent trip to Nashville last Saturday for a men’s basketball showdown with host Vanderbilt offered both good and bad news for the Skyhawks.

The good news first, senior Earl Bullock returned to the court and led the Skyhawks with 17 points in 19 minutes played. The rest of the good news was that Vanderbilt senior Matt Freije only scored nine points and played 21 minutes. Freije’s limited effort came after he scored 32 points against Indiana earlier in the week.

The bad news, well, Bullock’s 17 points were far from enough for the Skyhawks to pull the upset.

There’s more bad news, the Skyhawks suffered a 94-60 loss to Vanderbilt and fell to 2-3 on the year.

Vanderbilt improved to 3-0 this season and is now 4-0 against the Skyhawks since the series began in 1993.

Bullock, who missed two games with a knee injury he suffered from in the second game of the season against Western Illinois, hit five-of-14 three pointers in the game.

The Skyhawks kept things close until the 10:40 mark in the first half when Vandy went on a 13-4 run and stretched the lead to 15 points, 35-20, with 7:08 to play.

Vandy led at the intermission 48-34, as it outscored the Skyhawks 16-2 on points off turnovers.

The Skyhawks continued to struggle in the second half as Vanderbilt relied on double-digit scoring from four players. Dawid Przbyszewski led the pack with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Julian Terrell added 14 points, while Mario Moore and Corey Smith tossed in 13 and 11 points, respectively. The biggest difference in the game was rebounding, where Vandy claimed a 49-26 advantage.

On Wednesday night, UTM visited the Pyramid in Memphis to take on the University of Memphis.

Sean Banks and Rodney Carney should get all the credit for the University of Memphis’ 84-64 win over UTM.

Banks scored 24 points, while Carney added 21 points. Banks was all money against the Skyhawks.

He connected on seven-of-13 shots from the field and was six-of-nine from three-point range. He also grabbed eight rebounds. Carney was eight-of-18 from the field with nine rebounds.

Despite Banks and Carney’s efforts on the boards, the Skyhawks won the rebounding battle against the bigger Tigers, 40-37.

Sophomore Cleve Woodfork led the Skyhawks with 14 points and 10 rebounds. It was his first career double-double as a Skyhawk.

The Skyhawks enjoyed a five-point lead three times in the first half and the game was tied once at 19-all. Memphis used a 30-15 run to end the first half and claimed a 37-27 lead at the break.

In the second half, Banks and Carney came alive. Banks scored 14 points and Carney netted a dozen points. Ivan Lopez added seven second-half points to his tally and finished the game with 10 points.

Memphis took advantage of 12 second-half turnovers by the Skyhawks and the dismal shooting of Earl Bullock and Justin Smith. The two Skyhawk sharp-shooters were a combined four-for-21 from the field.

While Bullock and Smith struggled, junior college transfer, Tyler “Bibby” George came through with 10 points. He was four-of-six from the field and two-for-four from the three-point arch. The Skyhawks were a combined nine-for-29 from the arch in the game.

With the loss the Skyhawks fall to 2-4 on the year, while Memphis improves to 3-1.

The Skyhawks return to action tomorrow when they travel to Itta Bena, Miss., to play Mississippi Valley State. Tipoff has been moved back to 7:30 p.m.

The next home game for the Skyhawks is Dec. 13 against Rochester College. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. in Skyhawk Fieldhouse.