ST. CHARLES, MO. - The Lindenwood Men's Basketball team (16-10, 10-5 OVC) took down the OVC leading UT Martin Skyhawks on Thursday night by a final score of 75-74 behind Mekhi Cooper's game-winning field goal with 4.5 seconds to go in the second half. Jadis Jones led all scorers with a game-high 22 points on 8-11 shooting from the floor, but it was Cooper's late game heroics that gave the Lions their fourth win in their last five games to improve to 10-5 in the Ohio Valley Conference. 

The Black and Gold started the game on a 15-5 run behind six points from Jones and a three pointer by Clayton Jackson. Dontrez Williams extended the lead to 11 at 21-10 a few minutes later, but the Skyhawks responded with an 11-0 run to tie the game at 21 with 10:38 to play in the first half. After Milos Nenadic gave Lindenwood the lead back at 23-21, UT Martin went on an 8-0 run to grab a 29-23 lead with just over 7:30 to go. The Skyhawks went up by as many as 13 in the first half of play, but the Lions were able to cut the deficit to five at the break after closing out the first half on a 10-2 run. Jackson connected from deep for the second time in the first half right before the buzzer went off to make it a 44-39 lead for UT Martin at the break. Jadis Jones led the Lions with 12 points in the first 20 minutes of play and Dontrez Williams was right behind Jones who had 10 at the half. 

Early in the second half, Jackson picked up right where he left off in the first half and scored on a layup with 18:25 left to cut the UTM lead down to four. Anias Futrell would find the back of the net from the three point line a few minutes later to make it a 49-48 game with just over 16 minutes to play. Following the under 16 media timeout, Futrell and Jones scored four quick points to give Lindenwood it's first lead of the second half by a score of 54-53. Lindenwood was able to push their lead all the way out to nine points with 7:44 remaining after Milos Nenadic, Dontrez Williams, and Jadis Jones all scored in the paint to cap off a 6-0 run for LU over a span of two minutes. Similar to the first half, UT Martin responded with a run of their own and cut the LU lead down to one at 64-63 with a little over six minutes to play. The Skyhawks evened the score at 68 with 3:43 to go and the rest of the game would be tight as the largest lead for either team was three over the final four minutes of action. 

UTM took the lead back with 2:30 to go after connecting on a three pointer to give them their first lead of the half since the 11 minute mark, but Jadis Jones found Milos Nenadic over the top of the defense to cut the UT Martin lead to one on the next trip down the floor. After connecting on two free throws a few moments later, the Skyhawks went up by three again at 74-71 with 52 seconds left in the game. Nenadic scored in the paint once again to make it a 74-73 ballgame, and on the next possession down the floor, the Lions got a defensive stop with 13 seconds to go and called their final timeout a few seconds later. On the inbound play, Mekhi Cooper caught the ball just inside of half court and went around his defender and was able to connect on a floater from just inside the free throw line to give Lindenwood the 75-74 lead with 4.5 seconds left in the game. UT Martin had a good look for the game-winning shot but the shot was off to the right as Lindenwood held on to defeat the OVC leaders by a final score of 75-74. 

After UTM shot 66.7% from the floor in the opening half, the defense for Lindenwood held the Skyhawks to 30 second half points and 37.9% from the floor. The Lions scored 50 points in the paint tonight and forced 17 turnovers that led to 28 points for the Black and Gold. 

Lindenwood will be back in action on Saturday afternoon when they welcome in SEMO. Tip off on Saturday is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. and will be streamed on ESPN+.