Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Savage leading by example
1/27/2020 11:38:00 AM | Women's Basketball, BRAA
Senior making best of opportunities
Graduations and injuries created a need for a new post presence for Middle Tennessee early in the 2019-20 women's basketball season. Senior Charity Savage stepped up and made her presence felt.
Savage had already entered the season in an entirely new role as her team's only returning senior. Then she was tasked with filling that very large hole in the post.
The athletic, 6-foot forward started just three games in the first three years of her career, and she had never scored more than 60 points or grabbed more than 43 rebounds in a season. Yet, when she entered the starting lineup in the 2019-20 season opener against East Carolina, she looked like a seasoned veteran ready to lead her team to a successful campaign.
In that first game, Savage played 35 minutes and scored a career-high 16 points, hitting 4-of-5 shots and 8-of-10 free throws and grabbing 13 rebounds for her first double-double. The team won 68-66.
The breakout performance proved to be just the beginning of what was turned into a breakout season for the senior. She proceeded to grab double-digit rebounds in the first six games of the season, breaking the previous program record of four, and by the time the calendar flipped to 2020, she was in the top 10 in the nation in rebounds per game.
"It felt really good," Savage said. "It felt like the hard work has paid off…I honestly didn't know I had that many rebounds!
"I'm just trying to do whatever I can to help our team," she summed up. "It's been fun this season."
Savage has made her presence felt on both ends of the floor. In addition to shooting better than 50 percent from the field and grabbing more than four offensive rebounds per game, she has also led the team in both blocks and steals, far surpassing her single-season career highs in both defensive categories.
Savage's work ethic was critically important to the growth of this year's team in the first few weeks of the season. The Lady Raiders have one of the youngest rosters in the country, including five players who weren't on last year's team. The squad has eight underclassmen — four sophomores and four freshmen — with Savage as the one and only senior. That makes Savage's knowledge of the day-to-day routines of being successful in a Division I program an important learning tool for the younger players. It doesn't hurt that Savage is a proverbial "student of the game."
"I call her my mom," freshman Courtney Whitson said. "She leads by example, and that's important. … She deserves every bit of [the success she's experienced] because she works really hard."
Having a senior who works as hard as Savage that the young players can look up to has also been a blessing for head basketball coach Rick Insell. But it's nothing he hasn't seen out of the senior for years, though.
"Couldn't happen to a better person," he said of Savage's on-court success. "She's just a great student-athlete, very loyal to this University, and to the Lady Raiders basketball program.
"You just aren't going to find a person who has the character and the quality that Charity has."
Savage finally got her opportunity to shine, and she proved to be a true blue leader for the Lady Raiders.
Savage had already entered the season in an entirely new role as her team's only returning senior. Then she was tasked with filling that very large hole in the post.
The athletic, 6-foot forward started just three games in the first three years of her career, and she had never scored more than 60 points or grabbed more than 43 rebounds in a season. Yet, when she entered the starting lineup in the 2019-20 season opener against East Carolina, she looked like a seasoned veteran ready to lead her team to a successful campaign.
In that first game, Savage played 35 minutes and scored a career-high 16 points, hitting 4-of-5 shots and 8-of-10 free throws and grabbing 13 rebounds for her first double-double. The team won 68-66.
The breakout performance proved to be just the beginning of what was turned into a breakout season for the senior. She proceeded to grab double-digit rebounds in the first six games of the season, breaking the previous program record of four, and by the time the calendar flipped to 2020, she was in the top 10 in the nation in rebounds per game.
"It felt really good," Savage said. "It felt like the hard work has paid off…I honestly didn't know I had that many rebounds!
"I'm just trying to do whatever I can to help our team," she summed up. "It's been fun this season."
Savage has made her presence felt on both ends of the floor. In addition to shooting better than 50 percent from the field and grabbing more than four offensive rebounds per game, she has also led the team in both blocks and steals, far surpassing her single-season career highs in both defensive categories.
Savage's work ethic was critically important to the growth of this year's team in the first few weeks of the season. The Lady Raiders have one of the youngest rosters in the country, including five players who weren't on last year's team. The squad has eight underclassmen — four sophomores and four freshmen — with Savage as the one and only senior. That makes Savage's knowledge of the day-to-day routines of being successful in a Division I program an important learning tool for the younger players. It doesn't hurt that Savage is a proverbial "student of the game."
"I call her my mom," freshman Courtney Whitson said. "She leads by example, and that's important. … She deserves every bit of [the success she's experienced] because she works really hard."
Having a senior who works as hard as Savage that the young players can look up to has also been a blessing for head basketball coach Rick Insell. But it's nothing he hasn't seen out of the senior for years, though.
"Couldn't happen to a better person," he said of Savage's on-court success. "She's just a great student-athlete, very loyal to this University, and to the Lady Raiders basketball program.
"You just aren't going to find a person who has the character and the quality that Charity has."
Savage finally got her opportunity to shine, and she proved to be a true blue leader for the Lady Raiders.
Players Mentioned
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