On Feb. 20, the Tech Men’s Basketball squad took down bitter rival UT Martin at home in a thrilling 71-66 battle in overtime. This win clinched Tech’s ticket to the OVC tournament in Evansville, Indiana, from March 5 to 8.
Late in the game, Tech had a comfortable lead, but UT Martin’s Tarence Guinyard had other plans. Guinyard had 13 points in the final three and a half minutes of the game to help send the Skyhawks into overtime in the Hooper Eblen Center.
UT Martin’s Josue Grullon drained a buzzer beater three-pointer with a Tech defender in his face to make the score 62-all at the end of regulation. The Golden Eagles had Jaylon Johnson on their side, however, as the junior guard had seven of Tech’s nine points in the overtime period.
Johnson also had a clutch steal late in the game and was immediately fouled, a play that will be remembered as the nail in the coffin and the ticket-puncher to Evansville.
Tech only has two more regular season games in their 2024-25 campaign. The Golden Eagles currently sit at 15-14 overall and 10-8 in the conference, which puts them tied for fourth in the overall OVC standings.
They recently jumped their bitter rival TSU in the OVC standings after a 77-74 victory over the Tigers on Saturday.
Senior forward Rodney Johnson Jr. finished with 20 points and eight rebounds to lead the Golden Eagles to victory over TSU in the Hooper Eblen Center.
If Tech can maintain their conference ranking, they will gain a first-round bye in the upcoming OVC tournament and will send themselves straight to the quarterfinals round.
The tournament will provide a great opportunity for Tech to put an exclamation mark on the 2024-24 season which has been full of ups and downs.
The top eight seeds in the conference will all get bids into the tournament, while the three and four seeds will get a first-round bye and the top two seeds will get first and second-round byes.
Games one and two will be on Wednesday, March 5 at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. The fifth seed in the tournament will play the eighth seed in game one, followed by the sixth seed playing the seventh seed in game two.
The winner of game one will play the fourth overall seed the next day at 6 p.m. in game three while the winner of game two will play the third overall seed in game four at 8:30 p.m. on March 6.
On March 7, the winner of game three will play the number one seed at 7 p.m., and then following that game, the number two overall seed will play the winner of game four at 9:30 p.m.
Finally, on March 8, the winners of the two semi-final games will play for the OVC title at 8 p.m.
The Golden Eagles still have two more regular season games left on their schedule to try and improve their seeding in the tournament. Tech will take on Western Illinois this Thursday at home in the Hoop and then will return home again on Saturday as they take on Lindenwood.
