EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Despite leading for just over five minutes of the game, the eighth-seeded University of Martin at Tennessee men’s basketball team rallied from 13 points down to upset fifth-seeded Tennessee Tech, 70-67, Wednesday night at the Ford Center in Evansville as part of the 2025 Ohio Valley Conference Men’s Basketball Championship presented by United Fidelity Bank.
Down 13 midways through the first half, the Skyhawks (14-18) used a 10-0 run over the final minutes of the first half and the first minutes of the second to get back in the game. From there the game went back and forth with nine lead changes and six ties over the course of regulation to follow a similar script to the two regular season matchups which resulted in overtime showdowns.
With 3:36 to play, Vladimer Salaridze gave UT Martin the lead on a three-pointer, only to have Tennessee Tech tie the game with a three of their own from Kyle Layton. On the next trip down the floor, Tarence Guinyard put the Skyhawks on top for good, 68-65, with another three-pointer that allowed UT Martin to hold on for the 70-67 win and advance to the OVC Basketball Championship quarterfinals on Thursday evening.
The performance translated to dominance on the stat sheet where the Skyhawks won the battle of the boards over the Golden Eagles by a 43-31 margin and dominated in fast break points (10-1), second chance points (18-6), and points in the paint (30-14).
Guinyard led UT Martin with a game-high 18 points – scoring all 18 points in the second half – while adding six rebounds. Matija Žužic followed with 10 points and four boards to join Guinyard in double figures while Lamine Niang (eight points, seven rebounds and three blocks), Carlos Cortijo (eight points, three assists) and Afan Trnka (eight points, zero turnovers) sat just outside double-digits in the scoring column.
