SEMO & UTM Come Visiting
(St. Louis, MO) – This will be a big OVC weekend in St. Louis. Four of the Ohio Valley Conference’s top six teams will square off in the Gateway City region. First place Tennessee Martin (19-6, 11-3) and second place (tied with Tennessee State) Southeast Missouri (15-10, 10-4) will be visiting this weekend.
Southern Illinois Edwardsville and Lindenwood are each 9-5 in league play and tied for fourth place with Morehead State. Thursday UT Martin faces Lindenwood and SEMO visits SIUE. In these four teams we have last year’s regular season champion (SEMO), last year’s tournament winner (SIUE) and current league-leader UTM.
The OVC’s top two teams receive a double-bye into the conference tournament’s semifinal round and the third and fourth place teams receive a single-bye into the quarterfinals. Two of these top six teams will have to win four games in Evansville to win a tournament title.
Thursday’s games tip at 7:30 and can be seen on ESPN+. Saturday, the visitors switch locations with UT Martin visiting SIUE and SEMO heading to Lindenwood. Those games are 3:30 starts and can also be seen on ‘the Plus’.
OVC Weekend Starts in Edwardsville
SEMO (15-10, 10-4) @ SIUE (16-9, 9-5)
While Redhawk coach Brad Korn and Cougar coach Brian Barone are good friends, this rivalry has some heat. SEMO claimed last year’s regular season title by defeating the Cougars on their home court last February. Then the Cougars captured the OVC Tournament title by knocking off the Redhawks in Evansville.
Both teams have undergone something of a face lift since last season and SIUE won their earlier meeting 68-55 in Cape Girardeau. These are two surging teams. Since that January 17th game, SEMO has won six straight games and the Cougars have taken five of six.
After reaching double digits in just four of SIUE’s first sixteen games, 7’1 Arnas Sakenis has achieved that mark during seven of his team’s last nine games. He’s averaging 12.0 in that span. Guard Tyler King has had a similar expanded role.
He reached double figures just twice in the team’s first seventeen games and has turned the trick in each of the last seven, averaging 16.1 points-per-game, including a 16-point performance at SEMO.
SEMO’s Brendan Terry has been on a similar heater and Luke Almodovar has been making waves all season. Terry average 8.7 points-per-game through the Redhawks’ first fifteen games. He’s averaged 15.1 in the last ten. He leads the OVC in field goal percentage.
Almodovar has reached double figures in eleven straight games and fourteen of the last 15 and is averaging 15.4 during league games.
League Leaders Visit St. Charles
UT Martin (19-6, 11-3) @ Lindenwood (15-10, 9-5)
A contrast in styles will be on full display. Lindenwood plays at the ninth fastest ‘tempo’ nationally and UT Martin comes in at 326. While LU scores 77.9 points per game and allows 74.4 the Skyhawks tally just 69.4 and yield only 60.3. The first-place Skyhawks enforced their will in Martin, Tennessee, winning 69-55.
Four Lions are averaging double-figures during league play. Anias Futrell leads the OVC with a 20.9 scoring average. Jadis Jones (17.5), Dontrez Williams (16.9) and Milos Nenadic (12.8) fill it up for Kyle Gerdeman’s squad.
Jeremy Shulman’s team defends, rebounds and shoots threes. While their three-point shooting percentage is the conference’s second worst, they lead the OVC making 7.7 per game. They lead the OVC in rebound margin, scoring defense, defensive field goal percentage and are second to Lindenwood in blocked shots.
The Lions fast break constantly and lead the league in steals and blocks. This is an aggressive squad.
During the first meeting, Futrell couldn’t throw it in the ocean (2 of eleven), the Lions committed 17 turnovers and converted just two of 19 three-point attempts.
No doubt ‘Freshman of the Year’ Matas Deniusas (12.9 ppg & 6.7 rebounds per game) and Andrija Bukumirovic (14.7 & 7.3) are the standard bearers on this Skyhawk team, but this resilient bunch simply plays sound basketball without a ton of physical skill. They play hard and they play efficiently.
Scene Shifts Saturday
UT Martin heads to Edwardsville and SEMO to Lindenwood as the two teams trade locations and the borders of St. Louis. Edwardsville east of downtown St. Louis and St. Charles in the Gateway City’s western suburbs.
Not to be overlooked, Tennessee State plays at Southern Indiana Thursday and visits Morehead State for a big showdown on Saturday. MSU hosts Tennessee Tech on Thursday.
The big OVC weekend in St. Louis will cause there to be a significant sorting out of the OVC league race.
Do Good
Editor: Cover photo of Arnas Sakenis, courtesy of Siuecougars.com.
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