The Tennessee State women’s basketball team is heading to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1995.

The Lady Tigers upset No. 1 seed Tennessee-Martin in the Ohio Valley Conference Championship, 64-60, in overtime Saturday.

Lady Tiger coach Larry Joe Inman was pleased with the effort from his team to capture the OVC Championship.

“It’s like the films and movies you see, the overcoming of adversity that happens,” he said. “We kept talking about what we wanted to do and how we were going to do it. We made plans to win it and we won. We played well, we didn’t play as well as I’d like, but we had good defense and timely shooting.”

Tennessee State junior guard Brianna Lawrence won tournament MVP after her 22-point performance Saturday.

Lawrence made back-to-back shots for Tennessee State, but Tennessee-Martin countered with four free throws to tie the game with 53 seconds to play in the second half.

In overtime, Lawrence hit a jumper to start it off, and then with less than a minute to play, she hit a 3-point shot to give the Lady Tigers a four-point lead.

UT-Martin sophomore Ashia Jones turned the ball over late in overtime to give Tennessee State the chance to take a two-possession lead.

Skyhawk coach Kevin McMillan credited Tennessee State for being able to strip the ball away from Jones.

“We talk about someone has to make a play, and (Rachel) Allen made a play and stripped Ashia, who may have spun back and been able to make a play, but we will never know,” he said. “They killed us on the boards, they got 17 offensive rebounds and at the end of the day, we just couldn’t get them off the glass.”

Tennessee-Martin has represented the OVC in the NCAA Tournament the last three years and was three points away from upsetting North Carolina in the first round of last years’ tournament.

The Skyhawks will represent the OVC in the National Invitational Tournament.

Jones, Lawrence, Tennessee State red-shirt senior Chelsea Hudson and senior Rachel Allen, and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville senior Tierny Austin were all named to the OVC All-Tournament Team.

The Lady Tigers came into the championship after upsetting Edwardsville, who was the No. 2 seed.

Tennessee State won, 71-59, Friday. Hudson and sophomore Jayda Johnson each scored 17 points in the semifinal win.

Tennessee-Martin entered the championship game after defeating Belmont, 71-65, in the first semifinal game.

Ashia Jones scored 39 points on 16-of-30 shooting in that game. Belmont had four players in double figures.

The Lady Tigers will find out where and who they will play in the NCAA Tournament Monday, March 16.

Bob Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or rjreynolds@eiu.edu.