Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Middle Tennessee
-83,00 CUSA
Ole Miss
7-3,0-0SEC
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Blue Raiders hang tough but fall at Ole Miss
12/15/2021 8:53:00 PM | Men's Basketball
OXFORD, Miss. – Middle Tennessee stayed within striking distance most of the night but fell 62-52 at Ole Miss on Wednesday. Teafale Lenard Jr.'s career-high 12 points led a balanced Blue Raider attack in the loss.
"I thought we played extremely hard," head coach Nick McDevitt said. "Any time you outrebound an SEC opponent on the road, you've got to be doing the work around the basket. As a team, defensively, I thought the biggest difference in the game was the turnovers... I told our team I was really proud of their effort, because despite our poor shooting, we were right there for a [potential] good win on the road."
MT never trailed by more than 10 at any point in the contest, outrebounding the Rebels 46-39. The effort on the glass was part of the reason the Blue Raiders kept the score as close as they did despite shooting 3-for-27 from long range and turning the ball over more than twice as many times as their opponents.
Middle Tennessee played lockdown defense to start, holding the Rebels off the scoreboard for the game's first four minutes and 42 seconds. MT was unable to capitalize on the other end of the floor, however, as Ole Miss' first bucket of the game tied the score at 2-2.
The two teams went back and forth for the majority of the first half, with four ties and five lead changes in the first 15 minutes. The home squad pulled away in the closing minutes of the period, twice building its lead to as much as six points.
Donovan Sims knocked down a 3-pointer as the first half expired, cutting the Rebel lead to 27-24. DeAndre Dishman sparked a Blue Raider push early in the second, with assists on back-to-back backdoor layups followed by a second-chance layup of his own to help keep it close.
Lenard finished an alley-oop pass from Donovan Sims with a dunk with 7:42 left in regulation, cutting the Ole Miss advantage to 50-46. That was as close as Middle Tennessee would come the rest of the way. The Rebels edged away from MT over the final minutes to come away with the 10-point victory.
Game Notes
- Lenard's 12 points were a career-high.
- Camryn Weston set a personal best with eight rebounds, scoring nine points off the bench.
- Middle Tennessee falls to 0-4 all-time against Kermit Davis, who coached the Blue Raiders from 2002-18.
- The Blue Raiders' 46 rebounds were a season-high.
- MT shot a season-low 11.1 percent (3-for-27) from 3-point range.
