Former Trojan Jasmine Newsome MVP once again!!! NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee at Martin women’s basketball team became the first team to win four consecutive Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championships since 2001-04 with a 78-66 victory over No. 2 seed Belmont Bruins on Saturday afternoon at Municipal Auditorium. The victory notches the team’s six OVC title (four tournament, two regular season) in the past four years while clinching a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Skyhawks (24-7) never trailed after the 18:58 mark of the first half, while only trailing for 25 second in the whole game, en route to the program’s decisive tournament title. In contrast to the Skyhawks’ semifinal contest, the top-seeded Skyhawks had to provide a gutsy performance. Both teams valued each possession, committing just nine turnovers a piece. Four players scored in double figures for the Skyhawks who were led by the play of senior Jasmine Newsome, the tournament’s most valuable player. Newsome battled a twisted ankle along with a tumble over a media table before finishing with a game-high 25 points, seven rebounds and six assists to lead the Skyhawks. The MVP award is Newsome’s third of her career and second straight while scoring 20 or more points in nine consecutive OVC Tournament games. Freshman Ashia Jones tossed in 16 points while Heather Butler and Katie Schubert tallied 12 points each. With Butler’s 12 point performance, she earned a spot on the All-Tournament team, while extending her career double figures streak to 128 straight games and moving into a tie for fourth on the NCAA’s career made 3-point field goals list with 389. She now trails the all-time NCAA three-point record by three, set by Kansas State’s Laurie Koehn in 2002-05 with 392. In addition to the victory, the Skyhawks set a new program record for single season scoring with 2,623 total points this season. The mark eclipsed the previous record set in the 2011-12 season of 2,563, which ranked first in the country. Along with scoring records, the victory gave UT Martin 24 wins on the season, ranking as a new program record. “I thought that going into the game that we wanted the game to be kind of our style – our pace,” said UT Martin coach Kevin McMillan. “I thought that they would have trouble playing it but we couldn’t make them play the way that we wanted them to play. That’s a tribute to them. For this class to win four championships, I don’t think we ever dreamed of that when I recruited them and told them when they were high school seniors, ‘Hey, we’re going to win some games.’ But, we’re very thrilled.” “It’s an amazing feeling,” said Butler. “We are truly blessed and fortunate to have a team each year to be able to win the OVC Championship. But it is just a little different this year now because we’re so hungry and we are not satisfied. We want to get to the NCAA Tournament but win a game and continue to prove ourselves to everybody.” The victory not only wraps up the OVC Tournament, but the trio of Skyhawk seniors of Butler, Newsome and Megan White’s career in the OVC. The trio won four OVC Tournament titles while defeating their opponents by average of 10.25 points per game in the four tournament championship games. “There’s a very sad part of this for these guys and us because they’ll never play an OVC game again. But I think all of us are pretty happy to be where we are,” said McMillan.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 02:42:57 +0000
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