The Skyhawks dominated the Eastern Illinois Panthers Saturday evening, 85-61, for their fifth consecutive win in OVC play.

Seniors Jared Newson and Jeremy Kelly led all scorers with 23 points each for the Skyhawks. On what turned out to be an all-around great game for UTM, the team displayed an aggressive style of play as they forced the Panthers into 15 turnovers, nine of which came in the first half.

Great pressure defense by Newson and Kelly on the wings caused early problems for Eastern Illinois. The Skyhawks jumped out to a 17-5 lead at the 12:48 mark in the first half after back-to-back 3-point shots by Kelly.

Eastern Illinois guard Josh Gomes sparked a quick run for the Panthers, as they were able to cut the lead to 19-10 at the 11:22 mark.

UTM responded with another amazing run as they were able to truly focus in on the defensive end of the court, and completely control the game.

The intensity on defense spilled over to the offensive end as the Skyhawks connected on four 3-point shots, including two more by Jeremy Kelly, en route to an impressive 16-2 run that pushed the lead to 35-12 at the 6:09 mark in the first half.

Newson and Kelly combined for 10 of the Skyhawks final 14 points of the half, as the Skyhawks went into the break with a 49-29 lead over Eastern Illinois.

UTM scored 13 points off of the nine first half turnovers committed by the Panthers. The Skyhawks shot a blistering 55.6% (15-for-27) from the field, 60% (9-for-15) from behind the arc, and they were 83.3% (10-for-12) from the free throw line.

Kelly, who was on fire from the outside, led all scorers in the first half with 17 points as he shot 5-for-5 from the three. Newson was equally as aggressive as he scored 14 points. In fact, the pair actually out scored the entire Panther team in the first half 31–29. Eastern Illinois was paced by Josh Gomes and Jake Byrne who scored 10 points and 8 points, respectively.

The second half began much like the first half with UTM coming right at the Panthers and forcing a turnover on the first play. Skyhawks
Junior forward Will Lewis helped spark an 8 – 3 run to start the game with four of his 8 points coming in the first 2:25 of the second half.

The Panthers responded with a 10–5 run of their own, which was capped off by a Jake Byrne jump shot cutting the lead to 63–42 at the 12:36 mark.

The most impressive play of the game came at the 5:16 mark in the second half when Jeremy Kelly found Jared Newson under the goal with a no look pass.

Newson threw down a thunderous dunk over the Panthers’ Tom Burke, and he was even able to draw a foul on the play. The crowd erupted with cheers as Newson’s free-throw conversion made the score 77–50.

Eastern Illinois was never able to close the gap, and the Skyhawks cruised to an 85-61 victory.

UTM received a great lift off the bench as 14 players were able to contribute minutes to the winning effort. Jason Thompson and Cleve Woodfork led all scorers off the bench for the Skyhawks with eight points each, and Courtney Smith hit a pair of threes for his six.

As a team, UTM out rebounded Eastern Illinois 35–29, and shot an amazing 50.9 percent (28-of-55) from the field. Despite only shooting 2-of-9 from 3-point range in the second half, the Skyhawks still managed to shoot 45.8 percent on the game.

Eastern Illinois was led by Jake Byrne and Josh Gomes who had 16 points each for the Panthers.

Jeremy Kelly made sure his Senior Night would be a memorable game as he moved past Mike Meschede into second place for all-time steals leader in school history with 158 career steals. With his 23 points, Kelly moves right behind Newson into the fifth spot on the all-time leading scorers list at UTM with 1126 points. He is also only 21 assists away from moving into second place as the all-time assist leader in Skyhawk history.

With the win, UTM improves to 12–12 overall and 9–9 in conference play. The Skyhawks next game will be Thursday, February 16 when they go visit Tennessee Tech in what could be a preview of their first round match-up in the OVC tournament.