I haven't updated news about the Tennessee Tech basketball teams since the beginning of the season, so now would be a good time - especially since conference play will begin this weekend. The Tech men are looking strong this season. On Wednesday, we beat Bradley 86-84 with a layup by Anthony Fisher with only 2.9 seconds left. Bradley is a team that received some votes in recent polls to be put into the top 25. That makes the school one of the 40 best in the country. Our Sports Information department at TTU had said to us yesterday that Bradley may be the best team to ever visit the Eblen Center, which is our home court. Even the San Luis Obispo Tribune newspaper in California posted a story on the game on their online edition.
Our men's team, also, topped UW-Milwaukee by a 78-68 margin this past Sunday. An article from the web site of Sports Illustrated can be read here.
Meanwhile, the women are going through a bit of a struggle in the early part of this season. However, this can be realistically understood, because they are facing serious national competition. After winning the first game of the season, we have lost four straight, all to powerful teams that can compete with virtually anyone in the country. The first loss came against Alabama, where we were even ahead 32-28 at halftime. However, a drought in the second half ended in a 71-56 loss. Our high point of that game is when our Marissa Hensley put a 3-pointer in to increase our lead to 29-17 with 6:18 left in the first half, but it went mostly downhill from there. Meagan Lyons and Deanna Apple were the top scorers in that game.
Next, our women headed to Malibu, California, where they participated in the Pepperdine Tournament. The first team there we faced was Pepperdine, who has size and long arms in their arsenal. We didn't really compete strongly from the get-go, and actually played better in the second half, and finished with a 91-62 loss this past Friday. Pepperdine is a Top 40 team in the country. On Saturday, we faced Virginia Tech, who has an even higher size advantage, as their tallest player is 6-6. The bright point in this game is that we shot 10-for-21 from 3-point range. VT dominated us pretty much everywhere else. Hensley and Kendall Cavin, with 19 and 13 points respecively, were the leading scorers. Most of the scoring went to the Hokies, who finished with a 87-52 win.
On Wednesday, the women faced an old rival, Middle Tennessee State. These games always create excitement for the communities around Cookeville, Tennessee (TECH) and Murfreesboro, Tennessee (MTSU), as well as those familiar with both teams. The MTSU squad have competed well this year against national powerhouses, falling by only 4 points to Top 25 ranked Maryland, and competed strong against Pat Summit's Tennessee Vols group. They came to the Eblen Center, or the "Hoop" as we at Tech like to call it, and they brought their A game. We trailed 32-23 at the half, and when all was said-and-done, the scoreboard showed a final of 68-50 in favor of the other team in our U.S. Congressional District. Cavin and Hensley were again the top scorers with 15 and 11 respectively between them.
Both our teams head to Clarksville, TN, where we face Ohio Valley Conference rival Austin Peay on Saturday. Looking at history, I will go ahead and say that both the men and the women should be the favorites going into their games. The men should go deep into the OVC tournament this year, as they usually do. The women were ranked just below #50 in CBS Sportsline's pre-season magazine, and I see no reason why they can't compete this year. Once OVC play comes around, watch for the Tech women to tear up the court. They should play deep into the OVC tournament as well, perhaps even winning the tournament outright and heading of to the NCAAs.
Let's close this post with an interesting fact. The Tennessee Tech's women's team is the seventh-best in the country when considering win-loss percentage since the team's beginning. We are just a few games behind Stephen F. Austin, who is #6 by that statistic.
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