Dec. 16, 2000

Box Score

MARTIN, Tenn. - Tennessee Martin's Kelly Pendleton scored a game-high 18 points to lead three Skyhawks in double figures as UTM defeated Samford 71-62 in women's basketball action on Saturday night.

Amy Watson scored 13 points and T.J. Barker added 11 points and nine rebounds for the Skyhawks, playing for the first time since a Dec. 3 victory over West Virginia, who improve to 5-3 with the win. "It was a good win for us to be off as long as we have been," said co-head coach Gary Van Atta. "I am tickled that we have five wins at this point in the season.

The Bulldogs were led by 13 points from Danielle Pinkston and a season-high 12 points and nine rebounds from freshman Sarah Clement. Samford falls to 2-7 on the season.

UT Martin shot 42 percent from the floor and out rebounded the Bulldogs 44-35. The Skyhawks went 8-24 from three-point range.

UTM went on a 7-0 run with the score 18-17 halfway through the first half to open up a 25-17 lead. Samford's Kelli Moore hit her only three-pointer of the game with nine seconds remaining to bring the Bulldogs to within one point at 36-35. Pendleton was then fouled shooting a three-pointer with 1.2 seconds remaining. She made all three free throws to give UTM a 39-35 halftime lead.

Samford tied the game at 42-42 with 14:00 to play on a three-point play by Giovanni Price. UTM's Erika Dunning answered with a three-pointer that started an 11-2 Skyhawk run with 9:03 to play. The Bulldogs would get to within five points on an Aimee Cochran jumper with 5:13 left in the game but once again UTM answered with 7-0 run to claim its largest lead at 68-56 with 3:44 to play.

"I thought we played good three-point defense tonight," said Samford head coach Janet Cone. "We still need to work on our rebounding and getting consistent scoring. The thing everyone is going to remember is that we lost another game but I saw a lot of improvement from our players this week."

UTM entered the game as the nation's fourth best three-point shooting team averaging 8.1 three's per game. Pendleton was 10th in the nation shooting 54 percent from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs held Pendleton to 3-9 from three-point land and forced 21 Skyhawk turnovers.

Rebounding continues to plague Samford. The Bulldogs have been out-rebounded in eight of their nine games this season and are ninth in the TAAC in rebounding.

The game was played in Skyhawk Fieldhouse due to the re-surfacing of the main court in Skyhawk Arena. The Skyhawks played their first game in the facility since playing the same Samford team there two years ago.

The Bulldogs will take a couple of days off for the Holidays before returning to action against Washington State in the Lady Grizz Classic in Missoula, Montana on Dec. 28.