Blue Raiders win back-to-back over Charlotte

Saturday, February 6

Murfreesboro, TN

4:00 PM

Middle Tennessee

-511,37 CUSA

Charlotte

-99,55 CUSA

Charlotte

Middle Tennessee

2/6/2021 6:41:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Season Stats (PDF)Box Score (PDF)Photo Gallery

King, Millin post career high numbers in double-digit win

By: @MTAthletics

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Despite being down its leading scorer, Middle Tennessee made it back-to-back wins over Charlotte with a dominant performance Saturday.

The Blue Raiders announced prior to tipoff that junior guard Dontrell Shuler will miss the rest of the season due to an injury suffered in Friday night's game. That meant a team effort was needed to secure a gutsy 66-65 win on the front end of the back-to-back, and they followed the same way Saturday with a 73-60 victory.

"I was really proud of our team over the last two days — two gutsy, gritty performances by our group," head coach Nick McDevitt said. "

After Middle Tennessee (5-11, 3-7) got off to a bit of a slow start offensively, juniors Jordan Davis and Jalen Jordan helped ignite a few first-half runs that flipped the script and essentially buried the 49ers (9-9, 5-5).

The first run, 9-2 over about four minutes, gave the Blue Raiders a slim 14-13 lead through the game's first nine minutes. Then, a 10-0 spurt was followed by another 12-0 outburst late in the first half, helping the home team grab a 41-25 lead at the break.

Davis had 12 points in the first half, while Jordan had eight and three assists. Both were 3-of-5 from the field and 2-of-3 from 3-point range, Davis adding four free throws.

Maybe the most important part of the guard duo's first-half performance was the way they ran MT's offense without Shuler. The Blue Raiders had nine assists on 15 made baskets and shot 60% (15-25), including 54.5% (6-11) from 3-point range.

"It was a team effort, and we needed everyone to step up. That was our mindset," Davis said. "We really wanted to lock in on defense."

Charlotte cut the advantage to single digits several times early in the second half but couldn't get closer than eight. The Blue Raiders were too tough defensively, holding the visitors to 42% shooting, and were granted some bombs from a couple of sophomores.

Elias King led the way in the second half for MT with 12 of his 15 points and seven of his team-high eight rebounds. He set career highs in points, rebounds and minutes (20) and was a perfect 4-for-4 from 3-point range.

Fellow sophomore Tyler Millin also hit a couple of treys in the second half, finishing with 13 points to set a new career high.

"My teammates had confidence in me … and told me to just keep shooting it, you're a shooter," King said. "I told myself tonight, I might as well step up in a big way."

Davis had 17 points on 4-of-11 shooting to go with four assists, while Jordan finished with eight points, four rebounds, five assists and two steals.

All nine Blue Raiders who saw the floor scored at least two points, and they finished shooting 50% as a team with 17 assists on 25 made buckets, including 12 3-pointers. McDevitt hopes that kind of balanced output carries over to next weekend when they travel to Marshall.

"Anytime you're assisting on almost 70% of your made shots, that speaks to the level of which you're sharing it," McDevitt said. "Our shooting percentages were high, and that's because our shot quality was high.

"If we continue to share the ball like that on offense and stay locked in like we've been defensively, I like where this team can go over the last month of the season."