Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
Wednesday, December 14
Murfreesboro, TN
6 p.m.
Middle Tennessee
-72,00 CUSA
68
vs
61
Houston
2-9,0-0AAC
1
2
3
4
F
Houston
16
14
12
19
61
Middle Tenn.
15
22
25
6
68
Team Stats
UH
MTSU
FG%
.393
.400
3FG%
.375
.333
FT%
.786
.786
RB
27
40
TO
15
19
STL
12
8
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
20
FGM
5
3FGM
1
FTM
9
Pts
14
FGM
4
3FGM
3
FTM
3
Pts
9
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Pts
9
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
C
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's Basketball
Lady Raiders stave off late run to earn win over Cougars in final non-conference game
12/14/2022 10:10:00 PM | Women's Basketball
MTSU found success inside to power its second and third quarter runs
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — The Middle Tennessee women's basketball team grit and grinded its way to a win the team's final non-conference game of the season, securing a 68-61 win over Houston to win the team's fifth straight entering conference play.
The Lady Raiders (7-2) took a seven-point lead into the locker room at the break over the Cougars (2-9), leading 37-30 at the break. A dominant half on the boards for MTSU, who lead 19-8 after 20 minutes, led to seven second chance points for the Lady Raiders. A series of big runs powered MTSU to a bigger advantage in the third quarter, where the Lady Raiders exited the game's first 30 minutes with a 62-42 lead.
Houston would put on full court pressure to force myriad Lady Raider turnovers, outscoring MTSU 19-6 in the game's final 10 minutes thanks to 13 points off of nine MTSU turnovers, but a couple of clutch stops and free throws iced the game in the closing seconds to earn the win.
Kseniya Malashka finished the night leading all scorers with 20 points in just 19:37 minutes played. Jalynn Gregory scored 14 points while shooting 50 percent from the floor. Courtney Whitson and Anastasiia Boldyreva both just missed out on double-doubles, each player scoring nine points, with Whitson hauling in nine rebounds and Boldyreva tracking down eight.
By the Numbers
40-27: The rebounding advantage for MTSU at the end of the night. The Cougars entered the game seventh nationally in offensive rebounds with 18.2 a game. On Wednesday, the Cougars only secured nine offensive rebounds.
9: Third quarter turnovers by Houston, resulting in 14 MTSU points that frame. The Lady Raiders broke out a trap press that stalled out the Cougar offense, picking pockets, stealing passes and forcing poor decisions, leading to easy buckets.
22-for-28: Free throw stat line for MTSU on Wednesday, who took advantage of an aggressive Houston defense to get to the line on layup attempts and post moves inside. Houston only attempted 14 free throws on the night, in comparison.
Lady Raider Notes
Thoughts from Head Coach Rick Insell
"We've got to learn to take care of the basketball better at the end of the game. I'm not real happy about that. But I am happy about the win. (Houston) has got a very good basketball game. I don't know how they've won just two games. I think they'll still have a chance to win their conference.
"They're very aggressive, they've got a lot of lateral quickness, they were able to deny and keep us out of some of the things we wanted to do offensively. We never got an uncontested shot. They were very quick on getting to the basketball.
"It gives us something to look at. The next game on our schedule is Rice, which beat this team in overtime. And we've got to play Rice at their place.
"Very proud of our basketball team. In the non-conference schedule, we played probably one of the top 10 non-conference schedules in the country. We lost two games that we shouldn't have lost. Right now, we very well could be sitting here 9-0. But we're 7-2 and that's all we can do about it."
Player's Perspective – Jalynn Gregory
"It was a lot of adjusting for us, just because we hadn't gone up against a team that was like that. And so what I think we really had to do was just get used to what they were doing and go our pace and not speed up to them."
Up Next
The Lady Raiders open up Conference USA play on the road against Rice, who was picked fourth in the C-USA preseason coaches' poll. The game will tip off on Tuesday, December 20 at 12 p.m. CT.
Follow the Lady Raiders
Follow Middle Tennessee Women's Basketball on social media on Facebook (/MTSUWBB), Twitter (@MT_WBB) and Instagram (@mt_wbb).
The Lady Raiders (7-2) took a seven-point lead into the locker room at the break over the Cougars (2-9), leading 37-30 at the break. A dominant half on the boards for MTSU, who lead 19-8 after 20 minutes, led to seven second chance points for the Lady Raiders. A series of big runs powered MTSU to a bigger advantage in the third quarter, where the Lady Raiders exited the game's first 30 minutes with a 62-42 lead.
Houston would put on full court pressure to force myriad Lady Raider turnovers, outscoring MTSU 19-6 in the game's final 10 minutes thanks to 13 points off of nine MTSU turnovers, but a couple of clutch stops and free throws iced the game in the closing seconds to earn the win.
Kseniya Malashka finished the night leading all scorers with 20 points in just 19:37 minutes played. Jalynn Gregory scored 14 points while shooting 50 percent from the floor. Courtney Whitson and Anastasiia Boldyreva both just missed out on double-doubles, each player scoring nine points, with Whitson hauling in nine rebounds and Boldyreva tracking down eight.
By the Numbers
40-27: The rebounding advantage for MTSU at the end of the night. The Cougars entered the game seventh nationally in offensive rebounds with 18.2 a game. On Wednesday, the Cougars only secured nine offensive rebounds.
9: Third quarter turnovers by Houston, resulting in 14 MTSU points that frame. The Lady Raiders broke out a trap press that stalled out the Cougar offense, picking pockets, stealing passes and forcing poor decisions, leading to easy buckets.
22-for-28: Free throw stat line for MTSU on Wednesday, who took advantage of an aggressive Houston defense to get to the line on layup attempts and post moves inside. Houston only attempted 14 free throws on the night, in comparison.
Lady Raider Notes
- Anastasiia Boldyreva finished with a season-high eight rebounds.
- Kseniya Malashka recorded three blocks for the third time this season.
- Middle Tennessee improved to 4-0 in December.
- The Lady Raiders scored a season-high 16 second-chance points.
Thoughts from Head Coach Rick Insell
"We've got to learn to take care of the basketball better at the end of the game. I'm not real happy about that. But I am happy about the win. (Houston) has got a very good basketball game. I don't know how they've won just two games. I think they'll still have a chance to win their conference.
"They're very aggressive, they've got a lot of lateral quickness, they were able to deny and keep us out of some of the things we wanted to do offensively. We never got an uncontested shot. They were very quick on getting to the basketball.
"It gives us something to look at. The next game on our schedule is Rice, which beat this team in overtime. And we've got to play Rice at their place.
"Very proud of our basketball team. In the non-conference schedule, we played probably one of the top 10 non-conference schedules in the country. We lost two games that we shouldn't have lost. Right now, we very well could be sitting here 9-0. But we're 7-2 and that's all we can do about it."
Player's Perspective – Jalynn Gregory
"It was a lot of adjusting for us, just because we hadn't gone up against a team that was like that. And so what I think we really had to do was just get used to what they were doing and go our pace and not speed up to them."
Up Next
The Lady Raiders open up Conference USA play on the road against Rice, who was picked fourth in the C-USA preseason coaches' poll. The game will tip off on Tuesday, December 20 at 12 p.m. CT.
Follow the Lady Raiders
Follow Middle Tennessee Women's Basketball on social media on Facebook (/MTSUWBB), Twitter (@MT_WBB) and Instagram (@mt_wbb).
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