Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
Middle Tennessee
Missouri State
Blue Raiders Take Momentum to Missouri State this Saturday
11/18/2022 2:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – After a one-sided win Tuesday night over Rice to open Conference USA play, Middle Tennessee Men's Basketball heads to the Show-Me State for a non-league tilt this Saturday when they face Missouri State .
The Blue Raiders will look to improve to 3-1 Saturday while evening their early season road record. Tipoff from Great Southern Bank Arena is slated for 2 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN3 and the ESPN App. Saturday's matchup can also be heard on 94.9 The Fan, 95.1 in Murfreesboro with Dick Palmer on the call, as well as on GoBlueRaiders.com and the Varsity Network App.
Game 4: Middle Tennessee (2-1, 1-0 C-USA) at Missouri State (1-1, 0-0 Missouri Valley)
» Saturday, November 19, 2022 – 2 p.m. CT
» Great Southern Bank Arena
» Springfield, Mo.
All-Time vs. Missouri State
» MT and MSU are tied 1-1 in the all-time series.
» Both matchups were in Springfield, and both were part of tournaments. The Blue Raiders prevailed in the championship game of the Basketball Travelers Tip-Off Tournament 63-51, just three days before Christmas in 2008.
» Middle Tennessee would fall one season later in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, 87-79.
Blue Raiders Notes
» Tuesday's 36-point margin was the Blue Raiders' largest since a conference game since defeating Marshall by 39 points, 90-51 in at the Murphy Center on February 19, 2015. The margin of victory was its largest in a conference opener since the 1986-87 season, when it defeated Tennessee Tech 114-79.
» Middle Tennessee on Tuesday extended Conference USA's longest active home winning streak to 19 games, the fourth-longest such streak in program history. The Blue Raiders are two wins short of tying their third-longest home winning streak.
» Through Wednesday's games, DeAndre Dishman is third in C-USA and 80th nationally with 3.33 offensive rebounds per game and sixth in the league with 1.33 blocks per game. He and Elias King are tied for seventh in the conference with five steals apiece.
» Through three games, MTSU has had three different players lead the team in scoring, three different players lead in rebounds and four different assists leaders.
» Tuesday is Wins-Day for MTSU, as the Blue Raiders have now won 12 straight contests played on Tuesdays, dating back to December 2015.
» Dishman is one of just six seventh-year players in Division I men's basketball this season. His 14 points and 10 rebounds at Winthrop on Saturday marked his second double-double as a Blue Raider and the fourth of his college career.
» With 50 dunks last season, freshman Teafale Lenard broke the MT single-season record of 49 set by Reggie Scurry in 2018-19. After his 15th career multi-block game at Winthrop, he needs one rejection to tie Perrin Buford for eighth in program history with 62 for his career.
Scouting the Bears
» Missouri State has opened this year 1-1, having won its regular-season opener 82-47 against Pepperdine before going to Provo, Utah Wednesday for a 66-64 loss to BYU.
» Chance Moore leads the Bears in scoring (18.0 points per game) and rebounding (8.5 rpg) while coming off the bench.
» The Bears were pegged to finish fourth in the Missouri Valley Conference's preseason poll, behind Southern Illinois, Bradley and Drake.
» Head coach Dana Ford led MSU to a second-place finish in the league's regular season standings one year ago. With a 23-11 overall record and a 13-5 conference mark, The Bears lost in the MVC semifinals a season ago, 79-78 to Drake. Missouri State fell 89-72 in the first round of the NIT at Oklahoma.
» The Bears return just one starter and two total lettermen from last year's squad. Returning starter Donovan Clay averaged 8.4 points per game last year. Meanwhile, sophomore guard Chance Moore has a team-high 18 points and eight and a half rebounds per game this year, including a double-double at BYU. Senior guard Bryan Trimble Jr. is the other scorer in double figures so far in 2022-23, averaging 10 points per game early this campaign.
Follow the Blue Raiders
Follow Middle Tennessee Men's Basketball on social media on Facebook //MTMensBasketball, Twitter (@MT_MBB) and Instagram (@mt_mbb).
