EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Little Rock held off a pesky UT Martin club in an 82-77 win in an Ohio Valley Conference Tournament quarterfinal game Thursday night at the Ford Center.
The Trojans advance to the semifinals to play No. 1 seed Southeast Missouri at 7 p.m., Friday. Little Rock split two games with the Redhawks in the regular season.
Hitting shots wasn’t a problem Thursday night. The Trojans shot 29-of-58 (50%) from the field and 11-of-22 (50%) from the three-point line.
Senior LSU transfer Mwani Wilkinson came out hot scoring 17 of his game-high 29 points in the first half. He was 7-of-12 from beyond the arc. Junior Johnathan Lawson hit 3-of-6 from the three-point line on his way to 21 points. Lawson also totaled 8 assists, 5 rebounds and 5 steals. Senior forward Tuongthach Gatkek recorded another double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. He also dished out 5 assists.
UT Martin star guard Tarence Guinyard, who scored 17 points, gave the Skyhawks their first lead of the second half at the 9:46 mark when he made three free throws after being fouled while shooting a three-pointer. UT Martin led 62-61 and were up five less than a minute later after hitting a three-pointer following a turnover.
Little Rock wouldn’t allow the Skyhawks to gain control and cut the led to 66-65 on a Lawson hoop with just over eight minutes to play.
The lead see-sawed and UTM was up 72-70 when Vladamir Salaridze, who scored 15 points, answered Lawson’s three with a triple of his own.
However, the Trojans did take over down the stretch when Gatkek tied the game on a whirling jumper in the paint with 4:39 remaining. Little Rock outscored the Skyhawks 10-5 from that point on and Lawson’s two free throws at the 1:29 mark put the Trojans up 79-73. UTM didn’t threaten after that as Little Rock made 3-of-4 free throws to seal it.
