UT Martin Advances – Belmont Ousted

(St. Louis, MO) – Ohio Valley Conference teams split their Wednesday postseason games. UT Martin was victorious in the College Insider.com Postseason Tournament and Belmont was eliminated from the National Invitation Tournament. OVC teams are 3 and 2 so far this tournament season.

UT Martin

Alex Anderson scored 21 points including the final five in the game as the Skyhawks defeated Central Michigan 76 to 73. The tightly contested victory was the 20^th of the year for UT Martin. Head Coach Heath Schroyer’s team trailed by two in the final minute of the game when Anderson hit a three-pointer and then his two free throws in the final moments provided the winning margin.

Anderson led a balanced scoring attack, as 10 Skyhawks found the scoring column. Joining Anderson in double figures were Javier Martinez (13) and Jacolby Mobley (11).

Prior to last season, UT Martin hadn’t won a Division 1 postseason game. Last year the Skyhawks won three of four games in this same tournament, reaching the semifinals where they lost to eventual champion Evansville.

Belmont

The OVC regular season champs finished their season losing three straight games and two of them in a do-or-die scenario. Wednesday the Bruins (20-13) lost a high scoring battle (93-84) to Georgia.

Rick Byrd’s team trailed by seven at the half and lost by nine. Craig Bradshaw led five double figure scorers with 19 points. Austin Luke (16), Nick Smith (14), Evan Bradds (13) and Taylor Barnette (11) were the others.

Belmont dropped the season finale to Tennessee State, their OVC tournament game to Belmont and then again on Wednesday. Georgia shot over 50% for the game and out rebounded the smaller Bruins.

Bradshaw and Jeff Laidig are the only graduating seniors from this year’s championship team.

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