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Hot-shooting Blue Raiders continue winning streak at Western Kentucky
1/29/2022 5:31:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Career-high 31 points for Jefferson leads MT to first win at Diddle in four years
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Middle Tennessee backcourt brought the firepower Saturday in a 93-85 Conference USA victory at Western Kentucky. Josh Jefferson's career-high 31 points and Donovan Sims' season-high 22 led MT to its first win at E.A. Diddle Arena in four years.
"It's a great win any time you can win on the road and get once against your rival," head coach Nick McDevitt said. "We had a great week… Our guys put together, day after day, six days in a row of really good work. Practice was good. The way we played [Thursday] was good. We stuck together. Hung in there. Our preparation was good last night and this morning, and it paid off."
The Blue Raiders (14-6,5-2 C-USA) started the second half red-hot, making 3-point attempts on five of its first seven possessions, including four straight possessions ending in Jefferson 3-pointers. As a team, MT shot 15-for-26 from long range, coming one make short of the all-time program record.
Middle Tennessee extended its winning streak to five games, its longest since the 2017-18 season. With the win, the Blue Raiders remain in first place in the Conference USA East division.
MT led by 14 points with 6:24 remaining in regulation, but the Hilltoppers (10-11, 2-6) clawed back. The Blue Raider lead dwindled to five on two separate occasions, but Jefferson and Sims combined to go 6-for-6 from the free throw line over the final 49 seconds to salt away the win.
Jefferson finished the game 8-for-11 from the floor and 7-for-9 from 3-point range. With family in attendance, the graduate transfer set a career high for 3-pointers a short drive from his hometown of New Albany, Ind.
"I knew I would have to be on my best," Jefferson said. "I had a lot of family here who had never even seen me pick up a basketball, so my juices were flowing. I'm on a team where it can be any guy's day any given night, so we knew we needed to come out and compete."
Sims made 7-of-11 attempts from the field and was a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe. DeAndre Dishman added 10 points of his own, including a pair of low post buckets against 7-foot-5 Jamarion Sharp down the stretch that kept the Blue Raiders in the lead.
Middle Tennessee shot 57.1 percent both from the floor (16-28) and from 3-point range (8-14) in the opening period. The Blue Raiders – led by 12 first-half points from Sims – built a lead as large as nine points in the first and took a 42-37 lead into the locker room.
The Blue Raiders have now won back-to-back conference road games for the first time since February 2018.
Game Notes
- Middle Tennessee snapped a four-game losing streak against Western Kentucky.
- The Blue Raiders have won back-to-back conference road games for the first time since February 15-17, 2018, at Southern Miss and Louisiana Tech.
- MT's .574 3-point percentage was its highest when making 10 or more long balls since its upset victory over Michigan State in the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
- Jefferson and Sims are the first Blue Raider teammates to score 20 or more points in a game since Eli Lawrence and C.J. Jones scored 27 each on February 1, 2020 against UTSA.
- Jefferson set career highs in both points (31) and 3-pointers made (7).
- Sims' 22 points were a season high.
- Christian Fussell set a career high with two 3-pointers made.
- Sims recorded his first block of the season.
- The Blue Raiders' 93 points were their most in a C-USA game since scoring 94 at Florida Atlantic on Jan. 26, 2020.
- The last MT win in Bowling Green came on Jan. 20, 2018.
